The federal immigration court in Concord is backlogged by nearly 200,000 cases, with many of those involving people who could be eligible to remain in the country — if they had lawyers.
The National Lawyers Guild on Wednesday called on Bay Area attorneys with immigration experience to help provide crucial assistance to people with cases at the East Bay court, which has seen case levels explode following the closure of San Francisco’s court in May.
Attorneys are needed to supervise law students who are working with the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Chapter to file critical motions that can stave off deportation of people seeking asylum and other immigrants with valid cases for a judicial hearing.
The organization said in a statement that those hearings are not being scheduled because of a type of motion being filed more often by Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers seeking to have judges make immediate decisions on deportations while denying an asylum seeker a further judicial hearing.
The legal maneuver by government lawyers is called a motion to pretermit. If a judge grants that request, a potential asylum seeker or others with protected or legal status have a short timeframe to respond and appeal. Many of those notices are being missed and/or sent in languages some people don’t understand, leading to deportation decisions that could potentially be stopped with a simple legal filing.
The Concord court had roughly 170,000 cases pending as of the end of September, according to the nonprofit data-gathering organization Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC.
Immigrants struggle to secure fair hearings
Judges at the court have engaged in numerous practices that denied immigrants due process, including holding mass hearings where only one person has a lawyer, according to the National Lawyers Guild.
Immigration judges have also suddenly rescheduled hearings for earlier times or dates that cause people to miss them, then issued deportation orders in absentia.
Roughly 42% of asylum seekers who received an appeal hearing won their case.
“The people facing these hearings are our neighbors. Many lose their only chance at protection because no one was there to help them meet a deadline, not because their claims lack merit,” the organization said in an appeal to lawyers.
National Lawyers Guild San Francisco trains law students who are fluent in Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Farsi and Dari to prepare the necessary motions and appeals to request a hearing after an initial decision.
Volunteer attorneys would supervise up to three law students on matters limited to filing these motions.
The work can be done remotely and only requires a few hours a week. Supervising attorneys will check legal advice, approve motions prepared by law students on behalf of clients, and attend a weekly Zoom call. Volunteers do not need to take on full representation.
Attorneys interested in offering their time can contact the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Immigration Justice Program at [email protected].