A new report out of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic is cited by Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle for it's conclusion that immigrants represented by attorneys are three times more likely to win their deportation cases. 

Of the thousands of immigrants held in custody while awaiting deportation hearings in San Francisco, not many have lawyers. But those who do are three times as likely to win the right to remain in the United States, according to a new study by an immigrants-rights group and a Stanford law clinic.

The report, to be released Thursday, said 4,152 migrants in Northern California were jailed in a recent 12-month period for deportation proceedings in San Francisco Immigration Court, some as undocumented immigrants and others as legal residents facing removal for criminal convictions. Unlike criminal defendants, they have no legal right to attorneys, and only one-third were represented by a lawyer at any stage of the proceedings, the report said.

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The report shows that “immigrants who are locked up are much more likely to be able to stay with their families and communities if they have an attorney to help them fight,’’ said Jayashri Srikantiah, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School, which issued the study long with the Northern California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.

“But unfortunately, detained immigrants are the least likely to have attorneys.”