Salvador Sanabria, the CEO of Los Angeles-based El Rescate, said the small immigration law firm has around 250 open cases.
But with ongoing federal raids sweeping through the region, causing many undocumented immigrants to hide, more clients have started to cancel their appointments, Sanabria said. He chalked it up to one thing: panic.
“There is a mantle of fear experienced by people with immigration matters,” said Sanabria. “(It’s) affecting the quality of life of people and their daily and normal routine lives.”
As President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign continues to target these communities, Southern California immigration attorneys and those who work in the legal field said their clients are experiencing more uncertainty than ever before — especially in a system advocates say is insurmountable and lacks real humanity.
Last week, Department of Homeland Security officials said that over 1,600 immigrants were arrested for deportation since the Southern California raids began in June, and officials are promising more round-ups, under Trump’s goal of around 3,000 daily arrests nationwide.
On Monday, the Department of Justice sued Los Angeles over its “sanctuary city” policy, claiming the ordinance violates federal law by “obstructing enforcement of federal immigration law… necessary for officials to keep Americans safe.”
Though the Trump administration promised to focus on violent criminals, reports show a majority of those rounded up by ICE have no criminal convictions.
Across the region, people have been detained at work, in stores and at courthouses during routine hearings – and many are being denied due process once under ICE custody, these immigration lawyers say.
“We’re talking to them about how their cases could go, but also checking in on how they are doing, as a human being. We need to always try and center that — because we are dealing with humans,” said Karla Aguayo, director of Legal Services with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). “I feel like that’s been lost in all of this, with the way folks are being treated by agencies removing the humanity, (not) being treated with dignity. We’re trying to restore and center that.”
Aguayo said that things have become more “frustrating” overall when it comes to providing legal support to detainees and families, especially those feeling “shut out” from the system.
“From an attorney standpoint, these are constitutional violations. We sometimes have no idea how many people were removed without access to speak to counsel,” she said. “Even in the first Trump administration, there was more access — it wasn’t like jumping hurdles. But now, patience is being tested. You’re at the mercy of detention officers and guards. It’s like, how long are you willing to wait (to see) folks being processed? It seems like a tactic.”
Yazmin Mercado, a legal advocate with the San Bernardino-based Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ), pushed for a more compassionate approach.
Undocumented immigrants have worked hard, bought homes, established businesses, raised children, and have “had their whole lives established here,” she said. “They really have their roots here in the Inland Empire and not having any pathway to any sort of legal status…it’s heartbreaking.”
The ICIJ, a network of over 35 immigration advocacy groups serving the Inland Empire, hosts regular legal clinics, citizenship, family preparedness and “Know Your Rights” workshops. In recent months, groups have ramped up rapid response networks to ICE and border patrol operations. Though not an attorney, Mercado – along with the rest of the ICIJ staff – files legal paperwork on behalf of clients due to her accreditation with the California Department of Justice. She said she has seen longtime community members get detained.
With growing reports of enforcement officers showing up to immigrant hubs and workplaces without warning, wearing masks and not identifying themselves, and immigration fraudsters preying on the most vulnerable, legal experts say these acts have only fanned the flames of fear in communities.
Mercado noted that many clients have encountered impostors, fake “notarios” or notaries not authorized to practice immigration law or represent individuals, some of whom might be taking advantage of people desperate to find a path to legal status. Part of her job now is telling clients that, depending on their backgrounds, without a straight pathway to citizenship they shouldn’t file applications that could ultimately result in deportation.
“It’s hard – heartbreaking – having to tell people that, but it’s the reality,” Mercado said. “A lot of people get false or wrong advice, and that’s the scary part.”
Trump issued a memo in March accusing immigration firms and attorneys of “unscrupulous” behavior for reportedly coaching asylum applicants to “lie about their circumstances” to obtain “undeserved relief,” and he called for sanctions against any bad actors.
But these immigration lawyers — refusing to be intimidated from their work — affirmed that every individual has the right to due process.
As more people seek to protect themselves from fraud, while searching for viable roads to citizenship, many say the demand for credible legal services has both surged and been hampered.
Attorney Frances Arroyo works with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, which aids clients with asylum and refugee status, green card applications, family reunification and removal defense, among other immigration services. Arroyo said there is a high demand for counsel amid growing ICE activity — but things like financial constraints, widespread fears, and a “lack of due process” have caused fewer overall to seek legal help.
Attorney Connie Chung Joe, chief executive officer of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL), said the organization has also seen an uptick in legal aid requests, but case-by-case sensitivity is required. The civil rights organization offers services from naturalization workshops and info sessions to representing families in court.
Immigrants already face significant language, financial, or other barriers when it comes to obtaining citizenship, Chung Joe said, and are now being targeted “just for starting that process.”
Some visa applications could be delayed during court visits due to “administrative issues,” Chung Joe said. ICE has also begun detaining some immigrants – including people applying for U-visas and T-visas, which protect victims of crimes and human trafficking – as they leave the courthouse.
Federal immigration judges have also dismissed cases under “arbitrary circumstances,” Mercado, with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said. ICE agents have entered courtrooms, causing folks following the proper legal process to not show up for court. Not appearing could have even more serious implications for those pursuing legal status, and make lawyers’ jobs harder, she said.
The loss of federal funding — and lack of legal service providers — has also made it harder for people to find legitimate relief, many advocates said. They face issues such as general mistrust of the system, or legal information being lost in translation.
Lawyers and relief organizations are also struggling to find detained clients, some attorneys said. Chung Joe and Aguayo, from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said that detainees are not being brought to their mandated court hearings and are sometimes transferred to overcrowded detention centers with “inhumane” conditions.
Mercado, from the ICIJ, said her undocumented clients have also been moved out of state, making it more difficult for family members to communicate or provide them with legal help. A “lack of consistency and no transparency” are just some hurdles legal representatives face when providing timely, effective legal support.
Getting access to detained clients in California has also been more challenging than before, she said. At the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in the High Desert, advance appointments must be made for any visits, and the center’s “messy” administrative system doesn’t help – sometimes lawyers or representatives have been turned away altogether. In early June, three members of Congress — Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Covina and Rep. Derek Tran, D-Cypress — and several pro-immigration groups were barred from the facility. Also, phone calls for coordinating services cost money, which many detainees do not have.
Another obstacle lawyers said they’ve faced is ever-changing policies in an already complex, “unfeeling” immigration system.
Both Aguayo and Chung Joe said that, under Trump directives, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is constantly changing its requirements for citizenship, lawful permanent residence. For example, the requirement for in-person interviews has caused genuine fears of being detained at mandated appearances. And there’s an administrative burden, making immigration cases “far more arduous than before Trump came into office,” Chung Joe added.
“Officers that review applications are asked to be a lot more meticulous, more investigative in nature… like they’re trying to ‘catch’ the applicant,” said Aguayo. “It changes not eligibility, per se, but the level of scrutiny.”
She noted that an increase in memos during the current administration for those denied for affirmative relief are sometimes “placed in removal proceedings.” More applicants who get denied, for various reasons, are also seeing notices to leave the country — a significant shift, under this administration, from older immigration policies.
“The administration is making it harder and harder for people to apply, be granted asylum, citizenship or different remedies, and that is by design,” Chung Joe added. “Knowing that we, as (legal and civil rights) organizations, are being attacked and threatened, while at the same time having to try to do this work and try to meet the moment – it’s a lot.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.