After the quiet and severe reduction of a 60-year immigration assistance program from the U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ], a social service agency for immigrants in downstate Illinois has been left confused as to what future the program may have.
CBS News first reported the Recognition and Accreditation [R&A] Program saw all of its senior attorneys reassigned last week.
Danielle DeWinter is the legal director of the Immigration Project, serving Central and Southern Illinois immigrants.
“I have multiple teams who do a variety of work, and I help make sure that we are providing high quality legal services within each of those team models, structures and just overall management to ensure that all of our clients get the best service that they can get,” DeWinter said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
The legal matters focus on universal representation for vulnerable populations like those detained by immigration enforcement, direct representation in court and advice for pro se, or self-representation. It’s about 30 representatives in all who work under the supervision of licensed attorneys.
The Immigration Project said their DOJ Reps have served approximately 948 individuals in Central and Southern Illinois.
What is the Recognition and Accreditation Program?
The program was first created in the 1960s and allows anyone to become accredited in the practices and policies of the legal matters of immigration. The Immigration Project has been accredited as an R&A organization since 2017.
“…that program identifies that there are not a log of legal service providers that can meet the need within all of our communities, especially those much like Central and Southern Illinois where there are legal deserts for many,” said DeWinter.
That’s why the program establishes standards for training, expectation and supervision so those who are not licensed attorneys can practice immigration law under the supervision of a licensed advocate.
Those people then become a DOJ accredited representative, or a DOJ rep. DeWinter said the standards to become a DOJ rep include required training hours, continuing education and supervision.
“It is only allowed for organizations and individuals who work at nonprofits,” she said.
There are two kinds of DOJ reps. Partial reps are those who have partial accreditation, “which means they can only practice in front of affirmative immigration agencies; they are not allowed to practice in immigration court,” DeWinter said.
The other is full DOJ reps. They can practice law in front of immigration courts and litigate issues, but neither kind of rep can practice in any other kind of court whatsoever.
The Immigration Project has 5 partial and 25 full reps.
Left with only questions
One of the reasons the Immigration Project is concerned is because they had multiple applications pending for new reps. They wanted to expand even further upon their current staff of DOJ reps, but the work is now stalled until the confusion is cleared up.
“We have three additional partially-accredited reps who are applying for full accreditation, and we have one partially accredited rep who’s applying for renewal,” DeWinter said.
But the Immigration Project only found out about the gutting of the program through the CBS article. There’s been no word from DOJ.
Therefore, DOJ did not give any reason for the cut to the program either.
“I was on a call with multiple providers throughout the state just [Thursday] afternoon. We were able to just all talk about this, confirm that just from the sources that this has happened and since then, we did learn that media pressure has helped,” she said.
DeWinter said her team was left panicked, worrying about the loss of legal representation for their clients. The team only has unconfirmed reports to try and guide them.
“But as it stands right now, as long as an applicant, both organization and individual, applies for renewal prior to their expiration of their current accreditation, their accreditation continues until a decision is made on that application,” she said.
“It’s going to cause serious problems within the immigration system,” she said. “It’s already an extremely complicated process, and it’s going to have more individuals who are now working through that process without the proper knowledge of it—of the system itself.”
DeWinter said the confusion leads to an increase in fraud because immigrants are more likely to make mistakes without the proper legal help.
Immigration in the age of the Trump administration
DeWinter said the system is clogged enough as it is and applications already take an “obscene” amount of time.
“R&A programs and other programs that fund legal services and legal providers, their whole job is helping people get those papers, helping them to be secure, helping them to find stability in the United States based off of relief that they are legally eligible to apply for,” she said.
“The more and more the government makes adjustments, it’s becoming more and more challenging for individuals to be able to proceed. And one has to wonder, is the government making it more difficult intentionally so people give up?”
DeWinter hoped that is not the case.
Still, a number of cuts and changes to the immigration system have occurred in the second Trump administration, a core campaign promise of the president.
“I think it is fear mongering and hope that individuals ultimately give up their right to argue and fight their case and have due process and have relief that they are legislatively allowed to obtain,” she said.
The Trump administration once promised the deportation of millions of noncitizens from the country. DeWinter said immigration advocates are doing as much as they can to retain confidence among their clients.
“So, for one, we are making sure that when we are able to connect with a client and directly and fully represent them, we are making sure that they fully know their rights and helping them in ensuring their own agency, in making every decision, even if it means ‘I can’t do this anymore and I’m going to self-deport.’” DeWinter said.
“I think a big aspect of our role as well is just educating our community members, making sure that not only our immigrant community members understand what their options are and not feeling helpless, but also make sure that our other neighbors who go have security and stability here in the United States understand the very complex minefield that is immigration law and what some of these changes actually mean, practically.”
The Immigration Project is also closely following the debates over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, specifically the matters involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
DeWinter said she and her staff are not getting involved in that fight because she's concerned about staff burnout from all the ongoing political fights over immigration.
