That our immigration “removal” process is in crisis is beyond dispute. Many of the 300,000 aliens detained each year and facing removal (deportation) seek relief before immigration judges. As Prof. Peter Markowitz reports in the Fordham Law Review , “One cannot exaggerate how overburdened and underresourced the immigration courts are and how pro se cases tap those scarce resources disproportionately. In fiscal year 2008, the nation’s 214 immigration judges handled on average morre than 1,500 cases apiece. To assist them with this enormous docket, immigration judges shared, on average, one law clerk for every six judges. This flood makes a mockery of federal regulations … which provide, ‘The immigration judge shall inform the alien of his or her apparent eligibility to apply for any of the benefits enumerated in this chapter.’”
A recent report by the New York City Bar Association-based NYC Know Your Rights Project, based on data on 158 immigration detainees counseled by pro bono volunteers from December 2008 to July 2009, shows 39.2 percent of the detainees had possible meritorious claims for relief, such as cancellation of removal, withholding of removal, asylum and relief under the Convention Against Torture.
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