US Vice-President Joe Biden recently called on US law firms to make their attorneys available to provide pro bono legal representation to Central American children who have entered the US illegally. Before entering politics, Biden worked as a public defender. He talked to law firms which do not directly deal with immigration law about contributing to the efforts and told them that they can quickly learn how to help, because of their training.
Undocumented migrant children in the US must be processed by three federal agencies and given court dates before they can be returned to their home countries. Biden said that legal assistance and representation was needed to determine whether or not the children qualify for refugee status. US officials report that nine out of ten children who appear at immigration hearings without a lawyer are sent home – while only half of those who have a lawyer are deported.
California State Attorney General Kamala Harris has also asked private law firms to provide legal aid to undocumented migrant children. Although legally barred from providing representation to the youths, Ms Harris is trying to arrange private representation for the children at their deportation hearings.
President Obama is currently struggling to bring about reform to the immigration system. Congress and the Senate have been stalled by bipartisan disagreements and immigration reform is largely at a standstill. A proposal to provide $3.7 billion in funding to deal with the emergency was rejected by Congress, including $15 million in funding for lawyers to represent children in immigration proceedings. Biden’s call for assistance from the private sector would help tackle the gap left by lack of funding.
Click here to read a Reuters article about Biden’s comments.
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Maureen O’Connor, has assembled a taskforce to identify obstacles for low-income and disadvantaged people in that state to access the civil justice system. She established the taskforce to examine financial, language and disability barriers to justice in Ohio and to take a comparative look at entities in other states, with the view to establishment of a permanent body charged with the mission of identifying and eliminating obstacles to justice. She said there were 32 states in America that have “access to justice” commissions, which bring together stakeholders needed to advance and enhance access to justice. The eleven-person task force is composed of judges, representatives of legal aid organisations, the state public defender, and attorneys in private practice.
Click here to read an article on establishment of the taskforce.