Thread by @matt_cam

IMM JUDGE: Sir, I scheduled a hearing today so that you could file an application. Do you have that?

DETAINEE [in Spanish]: I couldn't.

IJ: You couldn't fill it out?

D: Idk how

IJ: maybe someone who speaks Spanish & English could help

D: I don't have any friends

IJ: I see here that you have 2 US citizen children and no criminal record. You may be eligible for a greencard.

D: I want to leave.

IJ: Are you sure?

D: I tried to find help. No one could help me.

IJ: Sir, it doesn't have to be a lawyer. There may be other people to help you

IJ: You understand that you'd be up your rights and accepting deportation.

D [thinking]: OK. My children need me. Let's try.

I see something like this every time I'm waiting through the #immigrationcourt detained docket. None of these people have a right to appointed counsel.

Hearings are constantly being continued, sometimes months at a time, so that detainees can try to find attorneys. Here in New England, there are so few non-profits able to help that they hardly ever do.

Even apart from the clear injustice, it's a huge waste of time & resources

I support appointed counsel in #immigrationcourt for obvious reasons, but you don't have to agree w/me to reach the same conclusion. Attorneys would also save the system time/money by preventing frivolous claims/appeals & not forcing the court to constantly have to explain things

No one ever talks about how much pro bono work actually costs us. I was (and often still am) taking these cases at absurd losses out of a sense of moral obligation, to the point that we had to start @GoldenStairsImm before my pathological disregard for our finances did us in

It's just so hard as a person of conscience with the special combination of skills and experience (but mostly experience tbh) required to navigate this misery *not* to jump in to every case like the one above.

It's also impossible to survive in a capitalist society doing that.

I'm now watching yet another unrepresented detainee w/no record. Not doing too badly under the circumstances, but he is about to be deported without ever having talked to an attorney about his actual options.

It's like watching someone walk out to train tracks & slowly lie down

And this is all just in the detained docket. Five floors down here in the Boston federal building, non-citizens from all over New England are appearing this AM for their deportation proceedings without attorneys, scared and confused and often not entirely sure what is going on

You may at this point be wondering why no one takes these, so here's this:

We've not been able to pay ourselves more than a few hundred dollars in the past month. This Fri, I will receive less than my mortgage payment from the nationally-recognized law office which I manage

I'm telling you this only bc I need you to understand why it is so painful when yet another well-meaning white person blithely suggests that they have a good pro bono case for us without considering the significant cost to myself & the other attorneys in my office

We're still in early stages with @goldenstairs, saving donations to pay a future staff attorney & not paying ourselves for what we're doing on these cases until we've reached a certain threshold and our board approves it. This has unexpectedly only compounded the problem.

Not where I expected this thread to go, and apologies if we're getting TMI here. It's just the worst time of year: no one is paying us, even at our intentionally low rates, there's a lot of year's-end work to do, and #MAGA shitheads keep telling me how I'm only in this for the $$

Let's close with some good news:

I just had the privilege of seeing an immigration judge grant residency to a client who has been undocumented for many years. It was an easy, predictable win--but every win really matters rn, more than ever before, and the joy is contagious.

If you're able to give in any amount, I can promise that @GoldenStairsImm is making every dollar count. (Our office overhead is minimal; we're committing nearly everything to fair staff pay/benefits) TY for keeping me company in #immigrationcourt this AM

gofundme.com/f/open-the-gol…

(To be painfully clear: my *half* of my already-remarkably-low mortgage payment)

@GoldenStairsImm *ICYMI or are new to my feed: I am both managing partner of a Boston imm law firm (Cameron Micheroni & Silvia) and the co-director of @GoldenStairsImm, a labor of love with my law partner Nicole Micheroni created bc we were both so tired of watching what I'm describing here

@GoldenStairsImm And no, I didn't mean to be doing both at the same time! I hear they created the "Cameron Rule" at my undergrad after I left that you couldn't be an editor at the student paper *and* the literary magazine and some days I feel like I'm doing that all over again