FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 18, 2024

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, the White House announced several immigration actions, including measures to help keep families together and support access to legal representation in immigration court. The Fairness to Freedom (F2F) campaign—a coalition of over 200 organizations and legal service providers advocating for a federal right to government-provided representation for all immigrants facing deportation who are unable to afford private counsel—commends the Biden administration’s actions in support of family unity and fairness in immigration proceedings as a positive step in the right direction.

Among the welcomed provisions included in the announcement are the creation of a new Justice Department position to improve access to legal representation, the expansion of a program to provide volunteer lawyer support in immigration courtrooms for initial hearings, and more training opportunities for law students. Building on these actions, F2F leaders call for substantial, long-term legislative solutions to the growing nationwide representation crisis, including passing the Fairness to Freedom Act and its newly introduced companion bill, the SHIELD Act, which would build the nationwide infrastructure necessary to provide access to legal representation for every person facing deportation.

Said Shayna Kessler, director, Advancing Universal Representation initiative, Vera Institute of Justice, “We welcome the White House’s announcement that responds to calls for help from communities and legal service providers. In a letter to the Biden administration this spring, the Vera Institute of Justice offered specific policy recommendations to reduce the immigration court backlog, create a fairer system, and help address the lack of legal representation for people facing life-altering immigration proceedings. We are pleased to see that one of these recommendations—the creation of a new Department of Justice position to increase representation rates—was included in this announcement. These measures to assist families facing the dire prospect of deportation are only the beginning, and must be expanded upon and sustainably backed with federal government resources and congressional support. We look forward to working with the administration on these advancements, and to the day when Congress passes the SHIELD Act and Fairness to Freedom Act to make universal deportation defense a reality.”

Said Nicole Melaku, executive director, National Partnership for New Americans, “We are grateful to see the Biden administration begin to name and address the pressing need for expanded legal representation for people facing deportation. What we and our field partners continue to see is that more and more people are facing deportation, and more and more people face deportation proceedings alone—not only because people aren’t provided an attorney in immigration court if they can’t afford one, but also because legal service providers lack the resources to support everyone in need of their services. A robust federal solution is necessary to address this crisis and promote fairness in our outdated federal immigration system. To build off of the administration’s promising representation plans, we call on Congress to pass the Fairness to Freedom Act and its recently introduced companion bill, the SHIELD Act, as a down payment to secure the long overdue right to legal defense for every person facing deportation.”

Across the country, 62 percent of the nearly 3.7 million people in immigration court facing deportation lack legal representation. This skyrocketing increase in deportation cases—up 54 percent in just one year from 2.2 million cases in July 2023—has coincided with increasing resource and capacity constraints for immigration legal service providers across the country, who are unable to keep pace with the number of people needing their services, despite their best efforts.

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Fairness to Freedom: The Campaign for Universal Representation was launched by the National Partnership for New Americans and the Vera Institute of Justice in April 2022 with a coalition of over 200 organizations and legal service providers. The campaign’s goal is to support the passage of the Fairness to Freedom Act to establish a federal right to representation for all immigrants facing deportation.