Dan Kowalski on Immigration Law and Policy

"The American Bar Association created ProBAR more than two decades ago to assist asylum-seekers detained in South Texas through the confusing patchwork of immigration court proceedings, said Meredith Linsky, director of the ABA’s South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project.  Touring La Posada this week, ABA members and local immigration lawyers heard the stories of refugees from all over the world who fled their homes to seek asylum in the United States. In telling his story, one Brazilian man looked toward Linsky, repeating, “They aren’t lawyers, they’re angels.”  Unlike in criminal cases where defendants are appointed public defenders if they can’t afford a lawyer, those who go before immigration courts must pay for their own, hope to find pro-bono help or go the proceedings alone, often with limited English and little-to-no understanding of how the system works, Linsky said.  The same goes for unaccompanied children, explained Karen Grisez, chair of the ABA’s Commission on Immigration."