Court

The percentage of immigrants that are represented by an attorney in removal proceedings varies substantially from city to city. Regardless of location, most immigrants that are ordered removed are not represented. COURTS WITH HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF REPRESENTED RESPONDENTS COURT % REPRESENTED Hawaii 56% California 49% New York 44% Virginia 43% Massachusetts 41% Nebraska 41% Pennsylvania 39% Maryland 38% Minnesota 37% Nevada 35% Washington 35% COURTS WITH LOWEST PERCENTAGE OF REPRESENTED RESPONDENTS COURT % REPRESENTED US TOTAL 30% UTAH 23% Oregon 22% Florida 21% Tennessee 19% Connecticut 19% Texas 18% Georgia 18% North Carolina 17% New Mexico 14% Colorado 14% Immigrants Ordered Removed & Percent With Attorney Immigration Courts with the most removal orders issued October 2023 – March 2024 IMMIGRATION COURT RANK ORDERED REMOVED # WITH ATTORNEY % WITH ATTORNEY New York City, NY 1 10,897 1,469 13% Harris County, TX (Houston) 2 8,336 1,382 17% Los Angeles County, CA 3 5963 1247 21% Dallas County, TX 4 2815 136 5% Miami-Dade County, FL 5 2521 368 15% Montgomery County, TX (Conroe)* 6 1,968 388 20% San Bernardino County, CA 7 1,703 383 22% Travis County, TX (Austin) 8 1,664 123 7% Orange County, CA (Santa Ana) 9 1,576 412 26% Cook County, IL (Chicago) 10 1,527 179 12% Ranking of Places With the Most Residents Ordered Removed in Immigration Court Proceedings During FY 2024 (October 2023 – March 2024)Data from TRAC Report* Jurisdiction of a large ICE contract detention facility owned and operated by the GEO Group (a for-profit company which runs private prisons). The Difference Having a Lawyer Makes The percentage of immigrants in removal proceedings that are represented by counsel appears to hover between 22% – 30% with 2021 being an outlier in which 52% of immigrants ordered removed were not represented. See the chart below based on TRAC Immigration Court Data-Full TRAC Report Here. Percent of Immigrants With Attorneys Ordered Removed in Immigration Court FY 2014- FY 2024 Fiscal Year Ordered Removed Had an Attorney Percent with Attorney 2014 78,538 17,063 22% 2015 81,767 17,424 21% 2016 79,720 19,567 25% 2017 101,469 27,341 27% 2018 120,343 40,428 34% 2019 187,039 58,971 32% 2020 164,430 47,985 29% 2021 38,021 19,910 52% 2022 111,830 36,038 32% 2023 236,726 47,816 20%