SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Lawyer Kamalpreet Chohan ran her finger down a list of 57 names of people scheduled to appear during a morning of hearings at the immigration court in California's capital and pointed out one glaring absence.
"None of these folks are represented," she said.
Chohan is the coordinator of a program that sends volunteer lawyers to immigration courts to ***** ist people without representation and help them navigate the complicated legal system where the stakes are a future in America or deportation.
Appearing without a lawyer opens up even greater risk under the second Trump administration, with the courts playing a key role in its mass deportation agenda. Courts are increasingly denying asylum, deportation officers have arrested immigrants in court hallways, the administration has packed courtrooms to cut backlogs and reduced lead time on hearings, prompting people to miss them.
Data shows that legal representation can be vital to winning in court but many immigrants, unable to pay for a private lawyer or find a pro bono one, navigate the system without an attorney at their side.

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