With U.S. immigration raids and detentions on the rise, more people are navigating a complex and hostile immigration court system. In a new study, Mirian Martinez-Aranda interviewed 55 formerly detained immigrants in southern California to understand how detainees navigate this system and seek justice. Her interviews, conducted with immigrants detained just before the latest wave of enforcement (2015-2018), are as revealing as they are disconcerting.

Detained immigrants in the United States face systemic barriers to justice. For example, U.S. immigration law does not guarantee the right to legal counsel or representation in immigration court. Most immigrants cannot afford legal counsel, and the resources that are available are overburdened and often unreliable. The paperwork and legal jargon bound up in the immigration court system are also complicated, which puts immigrants who do not speak English at an extreme disadvantage. As one interviewee described,

“We did not have the knowledge to fill out paperwork … Even requests to make a doctor’s appointment had to be in English. They [ICE staff] have dictionaries but won’t lend them. A few of us have dictionaries, so we work together to try to translate phrases to ask for what was needed. But it was very difficult.”

These barriers can delay and deny justice while undermining due process protections.  Martinez-Aranda interviewed one man whose time in detention was extended by a year because of the time it took to find an interpreter, since he was unable to communicate his case for asylum without one.

Martinez-Aranda found that to cope with these barriers, detained immigrants cobbled together resources from whatever sources they could find. Some received support from relatives, advocacy groups, and other detainees who had gained more familiarity with the legal system. Some sought assistance from lawyers, although they were difficult to contact and would sometimes cheat or abandon their clients. As one interviewee stated, “I was detained a long time, and I saw many people get taken advantage [of] by attorneys that took the money and never came back.”“I was detained a long time, and I saw many people get taken advantage [of] by attorneys that took the money and never came back.” Still other detainees were forced to represent themselves, which is usually unsuccessful. Together, these strategies invariably complicated or delayed cases.

The U.S. immigration court system systematically obstructs immigrants in a way that Martinez-Aranda describes as “legal violence.” These barriers to justice are heightened for those who are already the most marginalized: people with low education, low incomes, little knowledge of English, and little community support. The recent crackdowns on immigration enforcement further overburden the court system, increasing the number of people who are detained and face deportation with no guarantee of justice.