Immigration lawyers

As the complexities and restrictions of U.S. immigration law have increased, the legal profession’s subspecialty of immigration lawyers has flourished, extending in some cases to social-cause lawyering.

During the era of relatively open immigration that existed in the United States until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, there was little need for specialized immigration lawyers. However, as the federal government began enacting immigration restrictions during the 1870’s, a new field arose in the legal profession: lawyers who specialized in helping immigrants navigate the increasing stream of regulations and restrictions emanating from the federal government.Immigration lawyersImmigration lawyers[cat]ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS AND MOVEMENTS;Immigration lawyers[02730][cat]IMMIGRATION REFORM;Immigration lawyers[02730][cat]DEPORTATION;Immigration lawyers[02730]

Immigration Lawyers on Ellis Island

During the 1890’s, the U.S. Congress established exclusive oversight over immigration to the United States. It established official immigration reception stations on Ellis Island in New York Harbor in 1892 and on Angel Island in California’s San Francisco Bay in 1910. These immigration facilities were staffed by federal officials enforcing the restrictions enacted by Congress in a series of immigration acts. Immigrants responded by beginning to turn, in large numbers, to lawyers to assist them in the immigration process.

Given the almost plenary power vested in immigration officials at that time, early immigration lawyers played a mostly advisory role. Becoming expert in the administrative processes required for immigration, lawyers coached their clients on what to say to customs officials and tried, usually in vain, to appear as counsel for their clients in immigration proceedings. However, in cases that went before the immigration Boards of Special InquiryBoards of Special Inquiry that were authorized in 1893 to make determinations as to the entry of aliens, lawyers played more active roles.

Records have survived from about 424 appeals of decisions made by Boards of Special Inquiry in New York during the 1890’s. In 277 cases–about two-thirds of the total–the immigrants involved were represented by attorneys. Of the 277 cases involving attorneys, five of the attorneys appeared in five or more appeals each, thus demonstrating a nascent immigration bar. The most notable of the five attorneys was Gottlieb, HenryHenry Gottlieb of the firm of MacKinley & Gottlieb, who handled eighty-five of the appeals. A lawyer named Palmieri, JohnJohn Palmieri handled the second-greatest number of appeals, thirty-seven. Given that the 1890’s represented the first great wave of Jewish and Italian immigration to New York, it is safe to conclude that Gottlieb specialized in helping Jewish immigrants and that Palmieri helped Italian immigrants.

Social Cause Immigration Lawyering

Immigration lawyer, Jessica Salsbury, hugs a domestic worker to celebrate the passage of legislation protecting the rights of domestics at a Montgomery County Council meeting in Rockville, Maryland in 2008.

(AP/Wide World Images)

Both immigration and federal immigration legislation steadily increased during the first decades of the twentieth century. With these increases came growth in the numbers of immigration lawyers. What had been part-time legal work for general practitioners was increasingly becoming full-time work for lawyers specializing in immigration cases. With this increased specialization came two developments.

The first development was the immigration bar’s looking to promote its own professionalization and expertise. The American Immigration Lawyers’ AssociationAmerican Immigration Lawyers’ Association (AILA) was founded in 1946 as a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to the practice and teaching of immigration law. In 1975, it had about 600 members. By 1985, its membership had grown to about 1,800 lawyers. In 2009, the association claimed more than 11,000 lawyers and law professors as its members, with thirty-six chapters and more than fifty national committees.

In the second development, some immigration lawyers began to look upon their specialty as an opportunity for social-cause lawyering. The AILA itself established in 1987 the American Immigration Law FoundationAmerican Immigration Law Foundation (later renamed the American Immigration CouncilAmerican Immigration Council) as a charitable organization to advocate on behalf of immigrants and to promote public awareness of immigration issues. One of the most successful examples of social-cause lawyering was that of immigration lawyers securing the right to Asylum, political;Central American immigrantsasylum of refugees from the violence engulfing Central America during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

In alliance with members of the Sanctuary movement;and immigration lawyers[immigration lawyers]Sanctuary movement, immigration lawyers filed politically oriented lawsuits such as [c]Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese[Orantes Hernandez v. Meese]Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese (1988), [c]American Baptist Churches v. ThornburghAmerican Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh (1991), and [c]Mendez v. RenoMendez v. Reno (1993). After years of litigation, these lawyers helped secure the right of Salvadoran immigrants;refugeesSalvadorans and Guatemalan immigrants;refugeesGuatemalans to obtain asylum status in the United States, even though the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala were nominally allies of the United States, receiving extensive American support. Other groups that advocated on behalf of immigration rights and accessible borders included the American Civil LibertiesUnionAmerican Civil Liberties Union, the Fair Immigration Reform MovementFair Immigration Reform Movement, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education FundMexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Immigration ForumNational Immigration Forum, and the National Immigration Law FoundationNational Immigration Law Foundation.

Practicing Immigration Law for Profit

Obtaining residency in the modern United States can be an arduous process, and most aliens seeking residency require legal services. Many lawyers have generously devoted their time to assisting immigrants for reduced fees or even no fees at all. However, as the size of the legal profession in the United States has boomed, and as more avenues have been opened for solicitation and profit-making by lawyers, the immigration bar has become plagued by allegations of corruption, scandal, and exploitation. In 1985, several high-profile immigration lawyers were convicted and disbarred. In 2003, for example, immigration lawyer Kooritzky, SamuelSamuel Kooritzky was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for engaging in immigration fraud through his Capital Law CentersCapital Law Centers. In 2005, the federal Executive Office for Immigration Review disciplined fifty-four immigration lawyers.Immigration lawyers

Immigration lawyers Summary