New eyes on Immigration Court

Most weekday mornings, 20 or so detained immigrants are bussed from Santa Clara, Santa Rita, and Yuba county jails to 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. In a fourth floor courtroom they have their first appearance before a judge.

The majority come without an attorney, and unlike in criminal proceedings, the government does not provide counsel. Save for a few family members, hardly any one is there to watch.

But there may be some new faces in the audience in the coming weeks. Last month, the Immigration Committee of the San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild  ran a training at Golden Gate Law School to teach Bay Area law students how to observe immigration court proceedings and look out for any errors or due process problems.

In 2006, the San Francisco chapter initiated the Immigration Court Observation Project based on a similar effort in Boston. The group last month was the seventh batch of law students to be trained to observe in San Francisco since the project launched.

“By being there in immigration court and letting the judges and attorneys know that we are observing, they are more likely to pay attention to the due process issues,” explained Mike Flynn, an attorney involved in the project who began observing the court while a law student at Golden Gate.

The presence of observers might also remind the attorneys and judge to be as thorough as possible and “make sure to the extent that the law allows, that each person gets a chance,” said Flynn.

According to Flynn, the fact that most of the detained immigrants do not have attorneys is one of the main motivations to keep tabs on what goes on in court.

Often detainees have trouble making calls from jail and it can be difficult for them to reach a lawyer, let alone pay one. The Bar Association of San Francisco sends a rotating cast of volunteer attorneys to represent immigrants who come to their first hearing without counsel. But the consultations with the volunteer attorney is limited to just a few minutes, and after that first hearing, immigrants are on their own to find another attorney to take over.

The observers are still collecting data, and as of yet, the National Lawyer's Guild has not made any of their findings from the Immigration Court Observation Project public. There will be another training for new observers in early 2010.