Karnes County Residential Center. Photo: Lauren Connell.

Pro bono lawyers who represent immigrants in a Texas detention facility say the government and its contractor put in place policies that have significantly limited the attorneys' ability to represent their clients.

The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a nonprofit immigration law firm, first raised concerns last month about the policies that limit access to counsel. But it has now taken the next step by detailing all the issues in a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The letter, sent Tuesday, points out problematic ICE policies and practices by The GEO Group, which contracts with ICE to run the Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas. The detention facility can house up to 830 women and children, according to The GEO Group Inc. Recent news reports said the government had released families from Karnes and is holding adult women at the facility.

“We're seeing so many new people who fail their initial screening interviews, because they didn't have a chance to consult with anyone,” said Andrea Meza, director of the RAICES Family Detention Services Program.

People who fail that screening can ask for a hearing before an immigration judge, but many of them don't have a chance to speak to an attorney before their hearings, she added.

“They are not prepared for the hearing and they are getting negative decisions,” Meza said.

RAICES' May 7 letter said that for nearly five years, a coalition of lawyers from RAICES, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and immigration law clinics at the University of Texas School of Law and St. Mary's University School of Law have been representing detained immigrants pro bono at Karnes.

Previous policies for lawyers to access the facility and represent people were working, but the letter claims ICE drastically changed the policies on April 15.

For example, there have been delays seeing clients, because GEO hasn't been telling the clients about their appointments, won't tell more than one immigrant at a time that a lawyer is there to meet with them, and won't allow more than one client at a time into lawyer-visitation rooms. In the past, RAICES could add a new client to its visitation list and see her the same day, but GEO no longer allows the practice. GEO also did away with a walk-up sign-in sheet that allowed people to sign up and see an attorney the same day.

ICE has stopped allowing the entire RAICES team to enter visitation rooms as a group until there is a 1-to-1 ratio of clients to meet with each lawyer. The new policy has sharply decreased the number of clients the team can service from 100 to 150 before the policy, to just 40 to 60 after. It also wastes RAICES' staff and lawyers' time: On May 6, one staffer and five volunteers had to wait seven hours in the Karnes lobby, even though they had dozens of legal visits scheduled.

“Due to combined effects of this policy and others, individuals detained at Karnes must wait an average of 10 days for an initial pro bono visit,” the letter said.

Also, GEO has made RAICES lawyers and their clients leave visitation rooms if a private attorney shows up to meet with a client. A GEO officer said private lawyers always have preference over RAICES.

“It is of great concern that GEO contractors have stated intent to provide unequal access to counsel for those who cannot afford private counsel,” the letter said.

A GEO spokesman wrote in an email that it's unfortunate that RAICES included GEO in the complaint.

“Our company plays no role in setting the policies that govern attorney visitation and legal access to the Karnes Residential Center and other ICE Processing Centers. As a service provider and contractor to the federal government, our company is required to abide by policies and procedures set by the government,” said the email, sent by Pablo Paez, GEO's executive vice president of corporate relations.

No one from the press offices of ICE immediately returned emails seeking comment.

Read the RAICES letter here.