Almost all asylum-seekers in L.A. lack legal counsel, face deportation, report says
Almost everyone seeking asylum in Los Angeles immigration court has received an order of deportation, under a Biden administration program meant to speed up
Almost everyone seeking asylum in Los Angeles immigration court has received an order of deportation, under a Biden administration program meant to speed up asylum hearings.
A study by the Immigrants’ Rights Policy Clinic found that 99.1 percent of people in 449 cases completed under the Dedicated Dockets program in Los Angeles ended up with removal orders.
“Through this Docket, the Biden administration is not only denying families seeking asylum their day in court, but also punishing children, some less than a year old, by entering deportation orders that will follow them for the rest of their lives, leaving them vulnerable to deportation without ever receiving a day in court,” Ahilan Arulanantham, faculty co-director for the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, said in a statement.
Dedicated Dockets was created to ensure a fair, efficient and expedited court hearing process for asylum-seekers coming through the southwest border. The program operates in 11 cities and aims to reduce the time to resolve cases to 300 days, down from an average of 4.5 years.
But the Immigrants Rights Policy Clinic, part of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, has found that the program has instead left families without legal representation and with a large number of deportation orders issued against children in absentia, among other court process failings.
Rating: 5