It’s not required for immigrants to have a lawyer as they navigate immigration court. But people are far more likely to win their cases — and not get deported — with one.
WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s Renata Daou to discuss her article, “A lack of immigration lawyers in CT means big court backlogs,” as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story Short. Read Renata’s story here.
WSHU: Hello, Renata. You say a shortage of judges and immigration court staff has been an issue during the Biden administration, but it hasn't been discussed much since President Trump ramped up his mass deportation policy. So what prompted you to do this analysis, and what do the numbers show?
RD: So it wasn't much of a matter who the president was when I started doing the analysis. It was last year that I went to a self-representation clinic that groups were hosting in Hartford, in a church. So I just went, kind of like, to see what it was about. And when I was there, I was talking to the people who were hosting the clinic and the lawyers that were there, and I was like, 'Oh, why are you doing this? How many people are usually coming?' And I was just chatting with them. And, one thing that they told me that caught my attention was that they were doing this because a lot of these people who are coming to the clinics wanted to be represented by lawyers, but they couldn't find anyone available, or they didn't have the money to afford a lawyer. But this clinic is free, so that was an option for them.
And one of the lawyers that I was talking to was quite frustrated, because she was like, there are too many people. Like, I cannot handle more cases than I already have. There are way more people than like, and all of us can. Even if we try to take as many people as we can, it's just impossible. So I was wondering if that is a problem across Connecticut? Is this a Hartford problem? I remembered that last year, the problem seemed to be a bit worse. I remember that Connecticut was like, maybe, like 12, in the ranking of not being represented. So it was actually worse last year than it is this year. So I remember that I looked at that and I was like, wow, that wasn't like something that I really expected for Connecticut. I didn't know that there was, like the shortage. So I just started talking to a bunch of different lawyers about their experience. Looked at the data like and that's how it came to be.
WSHU: It's interesting that the backlog has actually gone down from 46,000 in 2024 to 42,364. Is that from 2023 to 2024, or is this the 2025 number?
RD: I believe those are like pending cases.
WSHU: Pending cases, yes, it's going down. The number of pending cases is going down.
RD: Yeah. It kind of spiked in 2023 and 2024, and now it's decreasing a little bit.
WSHU: Now, why is that happening? Do you have any ideas?
RD: So I talked to a few of the lawyers about why they thought this was happening. But the maximum that I can say is just like anecdotal evidence, there isn't really a set answer as to why it was going down from 2024 to 2025 when I talked to them. I know that some of them are like, maybe, like student clinics. They're representing these people, and they're trying to take on more and more people. It's just like people rushing; the process is just like trying to get it done faster. But no one really knows.
WSHU: You visited the immigration court in Hartford. What was your experience? What was the process like?
RD: I went to a merits hearing. For most people, it was either the first or second hearing. So basically, what happened was that the judge was asking, like, 'Oh, have you filed for asylum?' Most people had already filled out the application. So he would ask, like, 'Do you have a lawyer?' Most people didn't. So he was just setting another court date. But of course, he couldn't be sitting forever. So like, for most of them, they're like, Okay, next time they come, we third our lawyer, we're gonna go through with the process. So it wasn't when they actually presented all the evidence. It was just like those initial hearings.
WSHU: How difficult is it for someone in immigration court to represent themselves without a lawyer? What difference does having a lawyer make in an immigration case?
RD: Your success rate if you have a lawyer is way higher than if you don't have a lawyer. I believe it's just like the knowledge of the law, because, like, a lot of people don't know, like, what documents they need to fill, what programs they are eligible for, because there's a lot of different visas that you can apply in the US. There are a lot of different programs that you can qualify for, depending on your situation. And if you have just arrived in a new country, some people speak English. Some people don't. If you just like, arriving and you don't really know where to start, what you're eligible for, it's kind of like, hard to create a case and to have all this documentation ready and prepared, if you're doing all this by yourself, and you don't even know what the process looks like, if you're like, going completely like blank, I don't know. You think, like, realistically, like, what are the chances that you're actually going to be able to, like, defend yourself against, for example, like the government lawyer who knows the house, and those are the programs, and knows everything.
WSHU: You're not on the same level as them.
RD: Yeah, and having a lawyer who knows all these processes and everything you're eligible for makes a huge difference.
WSHU: What's the situation? Is it getting better? Is it getting worse? What's your takeaway from doing this analysis?
RD: It’s kind of difficult to say if it's getting better or not. I think the backlog might be coming down.
WSHU: Could that be because there are fewer people who are going through immigration court these days, because a lot of people are self-deporting?
RD: I don't know how many people are self-deporting. I would say that I think it's just, like, going down, just because, like I said, a lot of people cannot find lawyers. So, the cases get resolved quickly.
WSHU: You spoke to some lawyers. How do they feel about the future of immigration courts, for people who have to go through immigration court? I have Melissa here who says, “The biggest thing I wish people knew is just how wonderful my clients are, just how wonderful the immigration immigrant communities in our state and throughout the country are.” So they feel that if people got to know the immigrants, they would be less supportive of the harsh way that immigrants are being treated right now.
RD: Yeah, I was going to say that, like when it comes to the lawyers, all of them are very passionate about what they do, because this is a type of law that the like, financial return, for example, if you compare to corporate stuff litigation, you make way less money and the stress. So from what I saw, like the people who are in this type of work, they actually really passionate about getting their clients to get a better life and all of that, so that you can tell that these people are in this type of job, because especially those who are doing a lot of pro bono work.
Yes, I'm not sure how much they're making, but the people cannot pay for the services. Like an immigration lawyer, if you're paying out of pocket, it might cost $20,000; most people cannot afford that. So they're very passionate about it, and they want their clients to succeed. But I also like the laws keep changing really fast, so it's kind of, okay, how are we going to keep up with this? How many people can we truly represent and not leave them hanging? So there's this balance.
