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101 N.C. L. Rev. 787 (2022-2023)
Beyond Legal Deserts: Access to Counsel for Immigrants Facing Removal

handle is hein.journals/nclr101 and id is 790 raw text is: 101 N.C. L. REV. 787 (2023) BEYOND LEGAL DESERTS: ACCESS TO COUNSEL FOR IMMIGRANTS FACING REMOVAL EMILY RYO & REED HUMPHREY Removal proceedings are high-stakes adversarial proceedings in which immigration judges must decide whether to allow immigrants who allegedly have violated U.S. immigration laws to stay in the United States or to order them deported to their countries of origin. In these proceedings, the government trial attorneys prosecute noncitizens who often lack English fluency, economic resources, and familiarity with our legal system. Yet, most immigrants in removal proceedings do not have legal representation, as removal is considered to be a civil matter and courts have not recognized a right to government- appointed counselfor immigrants facing removal. Advocates, policymakers, and scholars have described this situation as an access-to-justice crisis or a representation crisis for immigrant communities. The prevailing wisdom suggests that the solution to this crisis is more lawyers or more nonlawyer practitioners, such as accredited representatives and legal technicians, who can provide affordable and quality legal services. The focus, therefore, has been on the ubiquity of legal deserts, commonly defined as areas that are in shortage of lawyers, and on ways to increase the supply of legal service providers in the marketplace. This Article presents an empirical study of legal representation that unsettles this prevailing wisdom by showing why an adequate supply of legal service providers is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition to address the representation crisis. Our study uses a new and original dataset that we compiled for the purposes of this study on immigration lawyers and non-detained immigrant respondents in removal proceedings. Our findings suggest that although the focus on the supply- side dimension of the representation crisis is important, it obscures other complex * © 2023 Emily Ryo & Reed Humphrey. ** Professor of Law and Sociology, University of Southern California Gould School of Law. This research was supported by the ABF/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Fellowship to the first author. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. We are grateful to Alejandra Chaisson, Zach Hollo, Paul Moorman, Helena de Oliveira Laub, Joshua Rodriguez, Karen Skinner, and Daniel Tsai for their invaluable research support. Our data collection on immigration lawyers would not have been possible without the assistance of Tizita Wasihun at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. We thank Irene Bloemraad, Ingrid Eagly, Nancy Foner, Fatma Marouf, Ian Peacock, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Andrew Schoenholtz, Juliet Stumpf, Lauren Sudeall, and Jeffrey Wasserman for their helpful comments and insights on earlier drafts. Direct all correspondence to Emily Ryo, USC Gould School of Law, 699 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90089. Email: eryo@law.usc.edu. *** Ph.D. Candidate, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington.

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