Connecticut Was Not Ready For The Immigration-Driven Courtroom Onslaught

 It's possible that no one anticipated the voracity of ICE agents, but this has to be frustrating for Connecticut's residents:

 On a recent Tuesday afternoon in a Hartford courtroom, a small crowd of about 20 people waited to be called before the judge.

Some fidgeted nervously. None of them had a lawyer of their own.

U.S. Immigration Judge Ted Doolittle called them forward, one by one, to the table facing him. An interpreter sat to his right, and an attorney from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was on a video monitor.

Those waiting their turn listened closely to the interpreter.

“I am looking for a lawyer, but most either don’t answer or say that they are busy,” one woman told Doolittle. “I’ve looked for them, contacted a few, some didn’t answer and some didn’t want to take my case because they were working on other cases.” 

The lack of an affordable and available lawyer was the common thread that bound this group together.

Immigration courts fall under the federal executive branch, not the judicial branch, like most courts. And immigration cases are civil, not criminal, meaning certain due process protections don’t apply — including the right to a court-appointed lawyer. 

Judge Doolittle gave each of the individuals before him a list of free and low-cost attorneys and emphasized the importance of having representation.

“[The lawyers] are often too busy to help everyone, and it can be hard to get in touch,” he told them. But the judge added that families with good attorneys win their cases more often. 

The judge warned the people in the room to be careful as they looked for an attorney. They shouldn’t give money to people they don’t know, he said.

As Doolittle dealt with each case, setting new court dates for most, the room gradually emptied.

It’s not unusual for immigrants to go through court without legal representation. But a Connecticut Mirror investigation found that Connecticut stands out for having one of the lower representation rates in the country — and that matters when someone is trying to avoid deportation. As Doolittle noted in court that day in June, people are far more likely to win their cases when they have a lawyer.

A shortage of judges and immigration court staff, a recent influx of migrants to the United States and the labor-intensive nature of cases have rendered it impossible for Connecticut’s small community of immigration lawyers to meet the demand for representation. 

As a result, tens of thousands of immigrants in Connecticut are left without legal support, even as stories of immigration enforcement grow more frequent, from a mother taken from her car in New Haven to men detained at a Southington car wash.