Accredited Representatives and the Non-Citizen Access to Justice Crisis: Informational Interviews with Californian Recognized Organizations to Better Understand the Work and Role of Non-Lawyer Accredited Representatives
Abstract
In the immigration law field, the federal government has authorized non- lawyer representation of non-citizens since 1975. More specifically, and as this Note fully explores, the federal government has established eligibility requirements for “accredited representatives”—non-lawyers who can represent and assist non-citizens with numerous legal needs, ranging from affirmative applications of citizenship to removal defense. These representatives receive accreditation from a federal agency, previously the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), now the Office of Legal Access Programs (OLAP), and the representatives must work with a “recognized organization”—a non-profit organization that the Department of Justice “recognizes” as authorized to house immigration legal service providers.
Accredited representatives are the focus of this Note because their federally-recognized status has been fairly controversial since inception, even while relatively little scholarship has examined their service model, studied their role in their communities, or reviewed their efficacy. Moreover, although the program remains fairly small—nationwide, only 1,985 accredited representatives are in practice today—the statistics on how few non-citizens find legal representation emphasize the urgency of finding solutions. This has put more attention on the possible role that accredited representatives can play in those solutions. State and local governments, as well as non-profits, have even made funding available for accredited representatives to serve non-citizens.
The limited scholarship on accredited representatives raises questions about the validity of historic criticism of the program as well as the more recent embrace of their services. This Note seeks to begin filling some of the holes in the scholarship and to start conceptualizing what role accredited representatives can and do play in addressing the justice gap faced by non-citizens. To this effect, this Note catalogues and discusses interviews with individuals from five California-based recognized organizations in order to give voice to a sampling of accredited representatives and to consider how these representatives can fit into the larger access to justice solution.