As Trump threatens deportations, Bay Area funding immigrants’ legal defense

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

Immigrants facing deportation have no right to a lawyer if they can’t afford one. But Bay Area governments are leading a movement — which could take hold throughout California — to ensure there’s an attorney by their side anyway.

Facing President Trump’s pledge to crack down on illegal immigration, officials in San Francisco, Alameda and Santa Clara counties are hiring public defenders and pro bono lawyers for U.S. immigration courts. Critics call the trend a flagrant misuse of local tax dollars, but immigrant advocates say it’s a way to make these courts more just.

“It’s past time that we provide representation for these people,” said Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender. Starting June 1, his office is dedicating three newly hired attorneys to deportation cases, thanks to $200,000 allocated by city supervisors.

“You’re locked up in a prison or jail facility, often far, far away from your family, you don’t speak the language, and you don’t have any resources — you need help,” he said.

A lawyer can mean the difference between getting to stay in the U.S. or taking a seat on the next deportation bus. Just 11 percent of people without legal representation prevailed in deportation cases, compared with 33 percent of those who had a lawyer, a 2014 study by Stanford University researchers found. Nationwide, about 40 percent of immigrants facing deportation had no lawyer in 2016, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

American tax dollars at work for illegals.