Several states and cities are providing “free” legal advice to illegal immigrants facing deportation, using tax dollars in a program that is poorly policed, according to a watchdog report.
In some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being diverted into “deportation defense programs,” according to the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1641906900593,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b3-de22-a173-2ffbab450000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1641906900593,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b3-de22-a173-2ffbab450000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_41397780", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"936152"} }); rn","_id":"0000017e-4946-d425-a7fe-ebd6f8200000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedIn its report, provided today to Secrets, IRLI showed how some cities, notably Philadelphia, team with pro-immigration groups to provide illegal immigrants legal help to avoid deportation orders.
But the legal group argued that taxpayers should not be on the hook to provide the legal services, saying, “Under U.S. law, illegal aliens and other non-citizens facing deportation orders do not have a right to legal representation because immigration law is a civil matter, not a criminal one.”
IRLI also said that oversight is rare despite expenses of $300,000 or more in taxpayer-funded payouts in some cities.
The brief report, titled “Illegal Aliens Are Getting Free Lawyers, and You’re Paying for It,” focused on one nonprofit organization that works with cities to provide legal support to illegal immigrants for little or no cost. The New York-based Vera Institute of Justice has 50 publicly funded local and state “deportation defense programs” in its “Safety & Fairness for Everyone” initiative, IRLI said. It claims 22 “formal” partners.
The group provides grants for legal help, but it also works to win local tax-dollar support, according to the report.
“Millions in taxpayer dollars are spent every year by the 22 local and city governments that are formal partners with SAFE. Upon researching every SAFE partner, IRLI estimates that at least $5.6 million dollars will be spent by taxpayers living in these communities for the 2022 fiscal year. This is a conservative estimate and does not include numerous other localities that fund their own independent anti-deportation programs,” IRLI said.
The programs are part of a larger national network to help illegal immigrants settle into communities and avoid deportation. Some of those programs, often church-based, begin hours or days after the migrants arrive, providing buses to shelters in cities far from the southern border.
“These programs are an insult to every law-abiding American citizen and legal resident,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI in a statement. “Our laws clearly state that non-citizens charged with civil offenses do not have a right to legal representation. Yet we have radical anti-borders groups starting these programs and sticking unknowing citizens with the bill. It’s outrageous.”
