Robert A. Katzmann Calls for More Representation for Immigrants

There are not enough lawyers helping immigrants defend their way through the immigration courts. Robert A. Katzmann, a federal judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals is doing something about the problem. The New York Times reports:

Robert A. Katzmann, a federal judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, believes that fact alone should summon the city’s legal profession to do more volunteer work in the immigration court system, where no defendant has the right to a court-appointed lawyer, and some of the most vulnerable end up in the hands of fly-by-night operators who bungle cases wholesale.

But Judge Katzmann, son of a refugee from Nazi Germany and grandson of immigrants from Russia, found that in the nation’s historic gateway to immigrants, few big corporate law firms seemed to hear that summons — even as the consequences of no lawyers or bad lawyers flooded the federal appeals courts, including his own.

So the judge took a rare step: Almost alone among the nation’s federal judges, he has used the prestige of his office to push for more and better legal representation of immigrants.

“Justice should not depend on the income level of immigrants,” Judge Katzmann told the group at the outset of this “working colloquium,” seen by some as a model for circuits around the country. Studies show immigrants with legal representation are three to four times more likely to win their case, yet nationwide, only about 35 percent have any kind of lawyer. With 39 percent of the Second Circuit’s caseload now made up of immigration appeals, he said in an interview, he considers his effort part of any judge’s responsibility to improve the administration of justice.