Charitable Legal Immigration Programs and the US Undocumented Population: A Study in Access to Justice in an Era of Political Dysfunction

On Tuesday, October 25th at 2:00pm ET, the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) hosted a webinar and discussion of the latest CMS report, Charitable Legal Immigration Programs and the US Undocumented Population: A Study in Access to Justice in an Era of Political Dysfunction by Donald Kerwin and Evin Millet.

The report examines the charitable legal capacity available to low-income immigrants on national, state, and sub-state levels. CMS compiled data on charitable immigration programs and their legal professionals from several data sources, including the US Department of Justice, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), and the Immigrant Advocates Network (IAN).

The following are some of the top line findings of the report:

• From CMS’ dataset of 1,803 charitable legal programs, 54 percent of these programs and 59 person of their legal professionals are located in seven states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Georgia;
• There is far less legal capacity than the national average in Alabama, Hawaii, Kansas, Georgia, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Arizona; and
• The United States’ 15 largest metropolitan areas are home to 54.5 percent of the US undocumented population, but only 51 percent of the nation’s charitable legal professionals.

CMS Publications and Events Manager, Melissa Katsoris, moderated the discussion. The report’s co-authors, Donald Kerwin and Evin Millet, shared key findings and policy recommendations. The webinar also included discussion and remarks about the report from the following experts:

• Steven Lang, Program Director of the Office of Legal Access Programs, US Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR)
• Rodrigo Camarena, Director, Immigrant Advocates Network (IAN)
• Anna Gallagher, Executive Director, Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC)

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