Immigration courtrooms in the San Francisco Bay and surrounding areas have seen an increase of “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) in court for removal proceedings. Most of these children, sometimes as young as four years old, do not have legal representation. In 2017 California had the second highest number of UACs in removal proceedings. While volunteer immigration attorneys, state funding, and organizations that provide legal aid to these immigrant children are more easily accessible in larger cities such as San Francisco, for immigrant children hundreds of miles away in the Central Valley and Fresno County areas, these resources are hard to access. “We’ve seen children from the Central Valley who have been to court four or five times without an attorney,” Katie Annand, managing attorney for the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) organization, says. “They’ve had to pay $200 each time to get a ride up here for court, so they are coming up to court just to say ‘I don’t have an attorney.’”
Read moreThe Atlantic: “The Thousands of Children Who Go to Immigration Court Alone”
What Can I Do Without an Immigration Lawyer?
I will be the first to tell you that immigration law is complex and changing and requires vigilance and care in preparing applications, but there is no requirement that foreign nationals, their employers, or family members use a lawyer. It is also true that under the Trump administration, foreign nationals (and even immigration practitioners) have become more cautious and even hesitant about filing petitions given the increased scrutiny of their applications by immigration officials and consular officers; nevertheless, there are certain applications that should still be straightforward enough to file without legal assistance. Cases filed by individuals without legal representation are subject to the same review and adjudication process as others filed by attorneys. We’ve previously discussed why an experienced immigration attorney can be valuable and in some cases absolutely recommended, but in this post we’ll more closely examine the types of applications and petitions that foreign nationals in most situations can prepare and file on their own.
Read moreAcronym Acrimony
Listening to immigration attorneys speak must sometimes sound like alphabet soup: DOL, PERM, USCIS, DOS, NVC, TSC, NBC, VSC, RFE, INA, EOIR, BIA, EAD, AP, LPR, and so on constantly litter our speech. I sometimes catch myself with a client mid-abbreviation and have to back up to say the complete name of the agency or phrase I’ve just tried to shorten.
The worst of it happens when immigration lawyers are talking to each other in front of non-immigration lawyers: “So, I called the NCSC, and put in a service request for the RFE that TSC issued on that EAD/AP application. While we wait for that adjudication, I guess the client will have to extend their H-1B with VSC.” The thing is, I don’t always notice I’ve done it until I look at the blank stares of friends listening to the conversation but not comprehending anything.
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