This is what it's like to be an immigration attorney right now

CNN

5 hours ago

Over the past several months, the nation has been exposed to images of immigration raids – at homes, food-processing plants and farmland, and favorite neighborhood restaurants.
Protests have erupted in Los Angeles and other cities across the country in response as people voice their frustration with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Trump administration's federalization of the National Guard and an immigration system demonstrators say is broken and doesn't respect human dignity.
The raids and protests have sparked difficult conversations about the immigration system as some people have been detained by ICE while at court defending their cases. Few people have insight into the difficult and taxing process of gaining legal status in the US, or the work put in behind the scenes by the attorneys representing these cases.
Ralph Enriquez, a Los Angeles-based attorney for Al Otro Lado, an organization that provides legal and humanitarian support for migrants in California, spoke with CNN about what it's like to provide those resources in this moment. He manages the organization's Unaccompanied Children Program, which focuses on children who came to the US without a legal guardian.
He shared the experiences of what he and his colleagues do on a day-to-day basis and the difficulties their clients face.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Can you just tell me a little bit about the unaccompanied children program, and what your goals are?
A: The Unaccompanied Children Program provides assistance to children that came without a legal guardian to the United States. Typically, we work with children that are designated by DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) as unaccompanied children. They've come through a shelter, typically, and then are released to sponsors in the United States. We also assist with immigrant youth that came with a legal guardian and did not go into the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Q: Can you walk us through what an average day looks like for you or the attorneys on your team?
A: Typically, when we have an unaccompanied child client, we will meet with the client and we will assist them in their preparation for their legal case.
Many of these cases involve a Special Immigrant Juvenile status, which is a status that is multi-layered in the approach to obtaining that relief, whereby our team might go to probate court or family court, obtain predicate orders (findings by a state court that the child meets three criteria), which are required to obtain Special Immigrant Juvenile status, and then we would use those predicate orders as a basis for applying for this status with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).
Then, based on that status, and with the availability of visas, at some point in the future, they would be able to adjust status based on their obtaining of those predicate orders. Predicate orders are based on the abandonment, abuse or neglect of that child by one or both parents, and the inability to reunify with one or both parents, based on those findings.
Also, our team does assist with, when this relief is available to a client, with the application for asylum. Typically, in the context of our work, we apply with the federal government, with USCIS, and that allows us to apply directly with the asylum office as an alternative to immigration court, so that they can adjudicate the asylum (and) have a petition for our client in a non-adversarial environment.
Now, at times, in many times, our clients are placed into removal proceedings before an immigration judge, and this is increasingly the case. And so, when that happens, then there is also the context of an ICE immigration attorney as the adversarial counsel, the immigration judge, and our attorneys, as the representatives in immigration court proceedings, and what comes with that.
Q: What is the average timeline of a case – how long does a case usually take from start to finish? Or does it really depend on a lot of factors?
A: It really depends on a lot of factors. So, there is a huge backlog at the asylum office, at the immigration court, and also in the availability of Special Immigrant Juvenile visas. And so, since many of the legal needs of unaccompanied children are ongoing, it's fair to say that a three- to five-year representation of a single client could be typical.
Q: How many cases does each attorney or team member usually handle at any given time, and has that changed at all between the Biden and Trump administrations?
A: Typically, in the legal service provision for unaccompanied children environment, a caseload for an attorney could be around 40 to 60 individual cases, and I'd say that that's fairly common.
Now, has it changed? It's changed in the sense that there is an increased need, a decreased availability of legal service providers able to assist, and also complexity of new regulations and enforcement measures that create additional need for Know Your Rights presentations, just more frank conversations with clients about the risks associated with being out in the general public as it relates to ICE enforcement.
Q: What is it like working with your clients, like these children, and how much time do the attorneys usually get to spend with them?
A: Working with the children is really great. We have children that we work with that could range from 6, 7 years old, all the way up to, potentially, 21 years old.
So in California, there is a post-18 guardianship, which is available to people that are eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile status, which does allow for us to continue to represent clients (after they turn 18 years old). And so working with a child that is potentially 7 years old is very different than working with a young adult that might be 18 years old and might require different tools in the tool kit of the attorney.
I've seen drawing pictures or use of puppetry as a way to explain what is happening in the immigration context for this individual client, and so that they can work with their – whoever would be their guardian or the person as their caretaker on the development of their immigration case with their attorney.
Q: What are some of the biggest differences that you see in your work now versus during the Biden administration or other administrations – if there are any differences?
A: So what we see right now in the shift of the administrations is a multifaceted complexity that's developing, in the sense of draconian enforcement methods are really creating fear within the community.
The insecurity and instability that these enforcement operations are creating does make – my sense is it does create a feeling generally within our client's community and client populations that it's unsafe to go out of the home, it's unsafe to do the normal things that one would do to be able to have their basic needs met.
And so this, paired with the decrease in available legal service providers, which is largely based on the decrease in federal funding under the new administration, does make it hard for somebody that might have an active case or would like to pursue legal release in the United States, to feel that they would have that avenue.
And also, too, that even if they start that process that the funding that typically comes from the federal government, or potentially a state government, is going to be there as their case develops. And so that's mainly what we're seeing, is that uncertainty of funding, the increased enforcement, the rhetoric that is really sowing fear into the communities. All of that together is creating an environment that could be deemed as hostile, and if anything is for a child, definitely I could see as scary.
Q: What do you think is the hardest part of the job for you or your colleagues?
A: I would say managing the secondary trauma that one might experience when working with children that are vulnerable, that have suffered trauma, and that's the basis for them being here and also seeking legal relief. This is our day-to-day work, and it takes its toll, and so wellness is very important for attorneys in this space, and just considerations of how am I taking care of myself and focusing on assisting, versus just having that trauma seep in, which can happen in this space and create burnout.
Q: What do you think is the biggest thing people don't understand about the immigration process?
A: I think there might be a perception of a more streamlined process, which doesn't exist based on my understanding of the system. And so, if there is a sentiment that a 7-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old and 18-year-old can go to immigration court, obtain legal relief that they would need to be able to stay in the United States and be protected from whatever brings them here – I would think that that's a challenge, to think that that's something that could be managed without an attorney.
Q: Why did you get into this line of work, and what makes it meaningful for you at the end of the day?
A: I'm from a community that is multicultural, with people from many different countries. I understand the difficulties, or I believe I understand the difficulties of just being in an environment and not speaking the language.
For me, this is really just dear to the way that I see the world and the fact that – how can we leave these vulnerable – these people in vulnerable positions, without any kind of assistance or support that might be within our skill set. So, being a person from an immigrant community, being a person from a border community, these are all things (that) inspire me.
And also, too, just the rhetoric against people that are from this community, in a sense that this is a reflection of American values. For me, there's a dichotomy between the two, and there's room to help. So if I can help, if as an attorney, if I can help in the humanitarian ways, I feel that that's part of just being a good citizen, and I'm respecting people from all countries, no matter their circumstance.
Q: Is there anything I didn't ask or didn't bring up that you would like to talk about or think is important?
A: One thing that I think is important is some of the other additional difficulties for a child to be in immigration court.
So, one of the complexities is that there are rare, indigenous languages that are hard to find individuals (who) are able to translate those languages. Just because a child speaks a rare, indigenous language does not in any way discount their ability or their need for some kind of humanitarian relief. And so outside the – without legal service provision, without an attorney that is assisting them, with somebody that's able to speak their language, I can't foresee a situation where a child in that circumstance would be able to obtain a legal relief that they would be eligible for.
And so, one thing that is clear to me is that those with immigration attorneys almost always do far better than those without. And it's not by small numbers. The percentage is just astronomical, the difference.
And so that's something that I hope is conveyed, (that) just the need at this time for legal service provision in this heightened enforcement environment is greater than it's ever been, from my understanding. And it's definitely – that adds a layer of complexity that is hard to manage.