Without a lawyer, immigrants in the U.S. illegally can be deported within days of being detained by authorities. Attorneys say the practice of keeping them in facilities far from larger cities makes finding legal assistance difficult, if not impossible.

Judy London merges onto the freeway, heading northeast toward a high desert already baking under a recently risen sun. From West Los Angeles she faces a two-hour, 100-mile drive to the Adelanto Detention Facility to meet a client who is being deported. The commute time can double if rush-hour traffic is particularly bad. London arrives at the facility and walks up a concrete path flanked by gravel to the detention facility's entrance. Once inside, rows of chairs and lockers greet her, as does a desk manned by a guard. She checks in but can’t meet her client yet – the facility is undergoing its daily head count and she has to wait until it’s finished. It can take another hour from this moment. London still has to be cleared through security and have a guard escort her client. Cells at the Adelanto Detention Facility, about 86 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It is one of the largest ICE facilities in the nation. (Los Angeles Times) Finally, she has to wait for an interview room. Adelanto Detention Facility has an average daily population of 1,785 but only a handful of rooms designated for lawyer-client meetings. And once a room is available, she’ll have to take all her notes by hand. The facility prohibits the use of phones, laptops and other electronic devices. London, like many immigration attorneys, spends a lot of time just trying to meet face-to-face with her clients. It’s a good day when she actually meets them. On bad days, she can spend hours traveling, only to be turned away. The facility has refused entrance to attorneys this summer for a variety of reasons, including a chickenpox outbreak and hunger strikes. “Generally, it is far easier for me, as an attorney, to walk into a high-security local or federal prison unannounced to visit a client than it is to get into a detention facility to see someone. And that is odd,” said London, directing attorney for Public Counsel's Immigrants' Rights Project. Miles away from legal aid Most immigrants detained by ICE during their deportation case don't have an attorney representing them. Immigration detention is considered civil detention and, as a result, detainees do not have a right to counsel as they would in criminal cases. Immigration attorneys say geography is a significant hurdle for them and their clients. Many ICE facilities in the U.S. are located in smaller cities, hours away from larger cities where the most legal aid organizations operate. As a result, even the legal aid resources the government provides for the detained can be many miles away.

For some of the largest immigration detention centers, the nearest government-listed pro bono legal aid group is located hours away, according to a Times analysis.

About 30% of detained immigrants are held in facilities more than 100 miles from the nearest government-listed legal aid resource, according to a Times analysis of 70 ICE detention centers. Of these, the median distance between the facilities and the nearest government-listed legal aid was 56 miles. The farthest is Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Ala. Alabama doesn’t have an immigration court, so immigrants detained there are referred to the Loyola Law Clinic — 408 miles away in New Orleans.

ICE detention facilities and their distance from government-provided legal aid can often exceed 100 miles

Distances were measured by mapping the shortest driving distance between each facility and the closest government-listed legal aid. The pro bono list is provided by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. Legal aid groups that do not work with detained clients or clients with criminal records were excluded. Only facilities with an average daily population of at least 100 detainees May 2016 to April 2017 were included.



Sources: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, National Immigrant Justice Center, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Times reporting.

The legal aid list informs immigrants facing deportation of available pro bono legal aid and services. It's administered by the Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review, which calls the list an "essential tool." Providers on the pro bono list – mostly nonprofits – aren't required to offer free services to every detainee, according to the Justice Department. Detained immigrants are allowed to seek an immigration attorney outside the list, if they can afford it. But for those who can’t pay, the list may be their only option. Still, only a lucky few get help from pro bono lawyers. UCLA law professor Ingrid Eagly analyzed 1.2 million deportation cases between 2007 and 2012 to address the lack of access to counsel. She found just 2% of detainee cases had free representation. Most immigrant attorneys came from solo practitioners or small firms. Faraway detention facilities can pose a logistical challenge to the court system as well. Court procedure can vary by jurisdiction. Some have judges at the facility. Some conduct business by teleconference. Some use a combination of the two. At Etowah, it's neither. Detainees there have already been ordered deported and are sent there while waiting for their final deportation date, according to area attorneys. The few still seeking legal counsel hope a last-ditch appeal will halt the deportation process. A losing game for detained immigrants Immigrants may be detained for many reasons. They may have a violent criminal record. Some immigrants with no criminal record may end up detained because they are unable to post bond. ICE may also detain those it deems to be a flight risk or danger to the community, which does not require a prior criminal conviction. In fact, civil violations have been a recent focus of enforcement. The overwhelming majority of removal cases since May 2016 involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials citing people for immigration violations rather than for criminal activity, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit data research center at Syracuse University. Regardless of the reason for the detention, once housed at an ICE facility, immigrants under deportation orders are significantly less likely to find a lawyer compared with those who aren't detained. An analysis found that 37% of all immigrants facing deportation, whether detained or not, had an attorney, according to research by UCLA's Eagly. When looking only at detained immigrants, only 14% secured counsel. The percentages are even lower for those held in a small city or rural area.

Representation rates vary widely between deportees who are and aren't detained during their case Non-detained immigrants who secured a lawyer Detained immigrants who secured a lawyer version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"? 53% 60 70 10% 15 17 Small city Medium Large version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"? 53% 60 70 10% 15 17 Small city Medium Large Source: A National Study of Access to Counsel in Immigration Court. Small city = 50,000 people or less; Medium city = 50,000 to 600,000; Large city = 600,000 or more. Non-detained immigrants are those who were detained and released on bond, or never detained.