2025 September New York Virtual Event

Please join the New York State Co-Chairs, Vince Chang and Adrienne Koch, for a virtual presentation:

“Access to Justice in U.S. Immigration Courts”

Emily Ryo
Past ABF/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholar
Charles L. B. Lowndes Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology, Duke University

Removal proceedings are high-stakes adversarial proceedings in which immigration judges must decide whether to allow immigrants who allegedly have violated U.S. immigration laws to stay in the United States or to order them deported to their countries of origin. In these proceedings, the government trial attorneys prosecute noncitizens who often lack English fluency, economic resources, and familiarity with our legal system. This presentation will focus on studies that examine issues of access to justice in U.S. immigration courts for immigrants in removal proceedings. The questions raised and addressed in these studies include: What barriers do immigrants in removal proceedings face in obtaining legal representation? Does the effect of legal representation on case outcomes vary by the race of immigrants, their lawyers, and/or immigration judges presiding over their proceedings? What is the role of social identity of individual judges and the role of social diversity of immigration courts in shaping the removal decisions of immigration judges?

Wednesday, September 10, 2025
12:30PM – 1:30pm ET