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Courts and immigration are tied up right now, with the saga over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation to El Salvador and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing Alien Enemies Act deportations to continue — but with a requirement for due process.
Immigration cases were already piling up in court before the Trump administration’s policies focused on alleged gang members and expedited asylum hearings.
In Utah, rising case numbers and a lack of attorneys to take them on can have ramifications for people going through the system. Legal representation can be critical, said Virginia Maynes, a senior immigration attorney with Catholic Community Services of Utah.
“Having somebody that can help you to be able to apply, fill out the form when it's an English form, know what evidence to collect before you go into court, can make the difference between being allowed to remain in the United States and being forced to return to a potentially dangerous situation,” she said.
Data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse back that up. Since 2005, 96% of cases in Utah where an individual was allowed to remain in the U.S. had an attorney. On the contrary, eight in 10 people whose cases resulted in a removal, or deportation, order did not.
But having a lawyer in immigration court is becoming rarer.
In 2017, Utah had the eighth-highest representation rate of any state. Nearly 60% of cases in immigration court had a lawyer. Since then, rates have fallen nationwide, but especially in Utah. The state now ranks 34th with less than a quarter of cases having an attorney, based on data through February.
Unlike in criminal court, people appearing in immigration court are not entitled to government-provided counsel. Thousands of individuals represent themselves in immigration court in Utah each year, increasing their odds of deportation.
There are several barriers to hiring an attorney, though, like cost.
Maynes said the demand for pro bono legal services is far greater than what her organization can provide, even though its immigration services staff has roughly doubled since 2017. Many people, asylum seekers in particular, she said, can’t afford to hire a private attorney.
“They may have whatever they had in their backpack, essentially, and that's not going to be enough to pay for a private attorney,” she said.
Even if they hope to get a job to pay those fees, asylum seekers are not eligible for work permits until their application has been pending for 180 days.
“How are these people supposed to work to support themselves, not to mention be able to hire a private attorney to continue with their case, when they don't even have authorization to work?” Maynes said.
The expense adds up, especially for families, said Patricia Quiñonez, a Venezuelan journalist who runs the Instagram account Utahzolanos.
“Also, a lot of people have lost money because, like with everything, there are bad actors who take advantage, so there have been scams,” she said in Spanish.
“También mucha gente ha perdido dinero porque como en todo, hay gente mala que se aprovecha, entonces se han dado casos de estafa.”
Murray immigration attorney Nicholle Pitt White has seen more and more of those scams. An immigrant might hire someone to help with their paperwork who is not authorized to practice law. The scammer might do a poor job on the asylum application — or worse.
“I've had folks come to me and say that the person lied on their forms and they didn't find out until later, because they don't speak English, that [the scammer] never filed their forms and just stole their money,” she said.
People might choose not to seek an attorney for fear it costs more than it does, Pitt White said. She’s seen attorneys charge anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 for an asylum case, but many offer payment plans.
“I would class a lot of us as ‘low bono,’” she said, noting an actual attorney could cost less than some scammers. “You could go into wealthier communities and charge a lot more, but we're trying to help the people.”
There are challenges for attorneys as well, including a shortage of immigration lawyers, said South Jordan immigration attorney Carlos Trujillo.
“The wave has been so overwhelming here in Utah, even though we're not one of the biggest states with immigrants,” he said.
That wave is visible in the number of new deportation proceedings in Utah. In fiscal year 2017, there were fewer than a thousand new cases. In fiscal year 2024, it was more than 26,000.
Attorney Pitt White noted that some firms “aren't actively taking any removal cases right now because they're maxed out.” Since the first Trump administration, other attorneys have decided not to take on deportation cases at all, said Kendall Moriarty, who practices in Salt Lake City.
“People are reporting to me, ‘I cannot find lawyers who will take my cases,’” she said. “Part of that is because the system is so stacked against the immigrant and therefore their attorney.”
She’s also heard other attorneys say these cases are too taxing and not financially beneficial.
Falling representation rates mean more people will lose their cases and have to leave the country, Moriarty said.
“The positive impact of immigrants is so layered and complex, and it's felt by communities in unknown ways, even,” she said. “With fewer people able to remain, that ripple effect is the opposite, right? It ripples out negatively, and it's really sad.”
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
