Pirate's Cove

And the lawyers they had had worked super hard to keep all the illegals in this country in contradiction to the law

Justice Dept. to halt legal-advice program for immigrants in detention

The U.S. immigration courts will temporarily halt a program that offers legal assistance to detained foreign nationals facing deportation while it audits the program’s cost-effectiveness, a federal official said Tuesday.

Officials informed the Vera Institute of Justice that starting this month it will pause the nonprofit’s Legal Orientation Program, which last year held information sessions for 53,000 immigrants in more than a dozen states, including California and Texas.

The federal government will also evaluate Vera’s “help desk,” which offers tips to non-detained immigrants facing deportation proceedings in the Chicago, Miami, New York, Los Angeles and San Antonio courts.

Why, exactly, would the U.S. government be funding a program that does this? U.S. code is clear: these people are here illegally, and the primary penalty is to be removed from the U.S.

But advocates said the programs administered by Vera and a network of 18 other nonprofits are a legal lifeline for undocumented immigrants.

“This is a blatant attempt by the administration to strip detained immigrants of even the pretense of due-process rights,” said Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center, one of the organizations that offers the legal services with Vera.

Well, great, these non-profits can pay for the legal services themselves.

Here’s an important part buried down the article, which Mary Meg forgot to mention when talking about due process

Immigration courts are separate from U.S. criminal courts, where defendants are entitled to a government-appointed lawyer if they cannot pay for their own legal counsel.

The Vera Institute said approximately 8 in 10 detainees in immigration court face a government prosecutor without a lawyer.

So, basically, illegal aliens are not entitled to a government appointed attorney if they cannot afford one. Why? Because illegal immigration is a civil penalty, in the vast majority of cases, which the illegal alien supporters love to point out. Even a lot of absconders, those who have been previously deported and came back illegally, which is a criminal offense, are treated as a civil offense. And, in civil cases, no lawyer is necessary. If you get a normal speeding ticket, you are not going to be offered a lawyer. You can get one if you like. But, government will not give you one. The 6th Amendment is about criminal cases.

A lot of the pro-illegal folks whine about this meaning little to no representation when someone is, say, an asylum seeker. Well, the illegal in question should have gone through legal channels to start with, rather than coming to the U.S. illegally or overstaying their visa. And, if these groups love illegals so much, they can certainly fundraise from all the rich leftists, right? Or, hey, work for free.