`A drop in the bucket' but NJ Law Journal supports $2M increased funding for DOJ Legal Orientation Program

Sen. Charles Schumer (D.NY) has proposed an amendment to HR 2487 - the appropriation bill for the federal departments of Justice and Commerce. The measure would add $2 million for the Department of Justice's Legal Orientation Program. Administered by the Vera Institute for Justice, the program offers four levels of service:

Group orientations by legal staff offer a broad overview of the immigration court process, relief from removal and ways to expedite removal.

Individual orientations allow participants to ask more detailed questions about the court process and specific forms of relief from removal.

Self-help workshops are small group classes that allow people who will represent themselves to prepare and practice with others pursuing similar defenses.

Referrals to pro bono attorneys are made for detainees who are unable to represent themselves or whose cases could especially benefit from legal representation.

The New Jersey Law Journal notes

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.'"

The New Jersey Law Journal Editorial Board, which supports direct federal funding of attorneys for aliens facing removal, nonetheless concludes:

Government spending on attorneys' representation of persons subject to removal is prohibited by federal statute, 8 U.S.C. 1362. But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has offered an amendment to HR 2487 — the appropriation bill for the Justice and Commerce Departments — that would increase LOP funding by $2 million. It may be a drop in the bucket, but every drop helps because the situation is dire. We urge Congress to support the Schumer amendment.