Pro Bono Spotlight: Overcoming the Odds on the Dedicated Docket
This month, RMIAN celebrates an incredible victory in ensuring due process.
Pro bono attorney Cathy Lee Lazar, assisted by RMIAN's Children's Program Pro Bono Coordinating Attorney Alyssa Telander, RMIAN Social Worker Jessy K. Pérez, and numerous pro bono advocates, overcame tremendous obstacles and helped a family appearing on Denver's Dedicated Docket win asylum!
This family was one of the few families on the Dedicated Docket who has been able to access legal representation. The Dedicated Docket, rolled out by the Biden Administration in May 2021, pushes families through removal proceedings at an expedited rate, making it incredibly difficult for these families to access counsel and build a case.
In a report published by TRAC immigration in January 2022, nearly 85% of the 70,000+ asylum-seeking families on the Dedicated Docket are without legal representation. At the time the report was published, over 1,600 cases had concluded, with only 13 families successfully accessing asylum—all of whom received legal representation.
Organizations like RMIAN are struggling to meet the needs of the thousands of families facing deportation on an expedited timeline. It is thanks to the efforts of pro bono attorneys like Ms. Lazar that we can provide these services to as many families as possible.
Ms. Lazar says of the time working on this case, "I am very proud and humbled and inspired to be a part of a community that included pro bono interpreter, Luke, our forensic pro bono doctors, and our pro bono experts... a network of several busy, talented, deeply good people, mostly behind the scenes, who also partnered in this win."
A huge congratulations to the family, and a huge thank you to Cathy Lee Lazar, Pro Bono Attorney, Luke Mueller, Pro Bono Interpreter, and the many other volunteers who contributed to the family’s asylum win.
If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering to provide pro bono legal representation, translation or interpretation services, or forensic medical and mental health evaluations, please visit www.rmian.org/volunteer for more details!