As Nicole Rodriguez, a paralegal assisting survivors of domestic violence, stood up to leave a New Jersey courtroom, she saw a woman crying. 

“I’m trying to find an attorney and no one’s listening to me,” Rodriguez recalls the woman telling the judge in Spanish. Rodriguez later learned the woman—an immigrant—was married to an abusive U.S. citizen and had fled her home with her son. 

“It’s so depressing when you’re a lawyer and you go into immigration court and you see how many people don’t have representation,” Michele Pistone, a law professor at Villanova University, explains. “It’s kind of like they’re on this assembly line and we say that we’re giving them ‘process,’ but they don’t understand what’s happening,” she says.

In 1958, the Department of Justice (DOJ) established the Recognition & Accreditation (R&A) Program for precisely this reason—to increase legal representation for low-income immigrants, according to the American Bar Association. The Program certifies accredited representatives, non-lawyers who can represent immigrants in court. Accredited representatives must work at non-profits designated as recognized organizations.

Despite the program’s 66 year history, there are still 1,413 undocumented people in the U.S. for every charitable legal professional, according to the Center for Migration Studies (CMS). In New Jersey, that number increases to 2,687 undocumented people per legal professional. 

Rodriguez, who works at a New Jersey non-profit, is one of those accredited representatives—taking on over 60 cases at a time. Immigrants in removal proceedings who have legal representation are 15 times more likely to seek relief, and 5.5 times more likely to obtain relief, according to a study published by the University of Pennsylvania. 

“It’s very much a program that has been in the shadows,” Pistone explains. Pistone has heard from former students who’ve become accredited that some officers at USCIS—which conducts site visits for the R&A Program—have never heard of an accredited representative. “I’ve heard of judges who’ve never heard of an accredited rep,” she adds. 

There are currently 9 million immigration cases pending at USCIS, and 3 million at EOIR, Robyn Lieberman, Associate Director of the Migration and Refugee Protection Strategic Initiative Group, says. But as of October 2024, there are only 2,561 accredited representatives working at 875 recognized organizations, nationally. “It’s an underutilized tool in the representation crisis,” Lieberman says. “The Program has been on the books since 1958,” she continues, “and there’s never been more than 2,500 at a time.” Why has the number of accredited representatives stagnated despite the growing need for migrants who lack representation?

To become an accredited representative, a prospective representative submits an application with their recognized organization to the DOJ. Rodriguez says, in all, her accreditation took about three months.

But when Rodriguez applied for accreditation, she had no idea how long the process would take. The DOJ provides no such information. 

In 2022, backlogs for accredited representatives reached 12 to 18 months, according to Lieberman. “It is impossible for somebody to put their career on hold for that long,” Lieberman says. “It’s impossible for organizations to keep open cases that long.” In addition, funding for non-profit organizations often depends on quotas that measure how many cases they process.

“That’s basically shutting down the program,” Lieberman says.

While the processing time decreased to one to three months between February of 2023 and 2024, it has begun to increase again. In September, applications took six to eight months to process—double the three to four months it should be taking—according to Lieberman. 

“There should be transparency on the website of how long you can expect to wait for your answer from DOJ,” Lieberman says. 

But the review process itself has transparency issues as well. There are currently two immigration judges—removed from the bench for harassment—who are adjudicating R&A applications, according to Lieberman.

“These are two judges that have had multiple complaints,” she explains. “They are asking some very unusual questions that we’re also documenting—that we think are beyond the scope of the regulations.”

The lack of available contact information for accredited representatives is another problem Lieberman raises. Despite the program’s goal to increase legal representation for low-income immigrants, EOIR only lists the telephone numbers of recognized organizations. Contact information for accredited representatives is entirely missing. 

Lieberman calls it “the referral rejection loop.” “They get a name of an organization that can represent them, and then they pick up the phone, and they’re getting ‘This voicemail is full,’ or ‘Please don’t call us for another two weeks,’” she explains.

“How are people supposed to contact these organizations?,” Lieberman asks. 

Rodriguez’s clients, who are survivors of domestic violence, may not have safe access to a phone inside their home, Rodriguez says.

The DOJ has the contact information of every accredited representative. “People apply with their emails, and they communicate with the DOJ by email,” Lieberman explains.

“This is a public program,” Pistone says. “Part of the purpose is for the public to contact these people.”

But Lieberman says the lack of data on accredited representatives is typical. There has been no comprehensive study of the R&A program in the program’s 66 year history. “There’s no basic data in the field at all,” Lieberman explains. “We have no idea how long the typical average stay is, or tenure is for an accredited rep.”

In May of this year, Villanova University and CMS announced the first comprehensive audit of the R&A program. The audit is being conducted through surveys that closed last month, according to Pistone. 

With the 2024 Presidential Election underway, however, the future of the R&A program remains uncertain. “The R&A Program is not established by law, it’s regulatory,” Matthew Lisecki, Senior Research & Policy Analyst at CMS, explains. 

“It can be done away with just an executive action.” 

Anxieties also exist for Lieberman. “I’m living in fear that if there is a Trump administration, I don’t know what’s going to happen to the DOJ office that does the accreditations,” says Lieberman.

“If it’s a Trump administration, I think we’re going to have to fight like hell to keep the office open.”

But Lierbman also remains skeptical of a Harris administration. “I’ve worked with both Joe Biden and Kamala,” Lieberman explains. “They’re definitely sympathetic, but neither of them have immigration as a priority.”

“They’re willing to surrender to a lot of right wing talking points on immigration, and they’re willing to divert funding away from things that they know are right.”





Sources:
1. Matthew Lisiecki, Center for Migration Studies
2. Michele Pistone, Founder & Faculty Director, Migration and Refugee Protection Strategic Initiative Group, Villanova University
3. Robyn Lieberman, Associate Director, Migration and Refugee Protection Strategic Initiative Group, Villanova University
4. Nicole Rodriguez, Community Victim Advocacy Coordinator & Partially Accredited DOJ Representative, Mercy Center
5. Toinette M. Mitchell, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Disciplinary Counsel
6. Recognized Organizations and Accredited Representatives Roster: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/942301/dl?inline
7. Accredited Representatives Roster: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/942311/dl?inline
8. A National Study of Access to Counsel in Immigration Court: https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9502&context=penn_law_review
9. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/commission_on_immigration/bia_accreditation_and_entering_immigration_appearances_1994.pdf
10. https://www.justice.gov/eoir/recognition-and-accreditation-program
11. https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=c1727e98a9a2e76e2b419d8a15fec36d&mc=true&node=pt8.1.1292&rgn=div5
12. https://www.cliniclegal.org/resources/federal-administrative-advocacy/policy-brief-severely-under-resourced-ra-program