Lawyer says immigration cases are hard to win after migrants have been detained

Olivia Hayes

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Missouri immigration lawyer says due to new immigration policies, he has had to stop taking on removal cases for immigrants in detention.

“Changes to the immigration court system, how evidence is being evaluated, how charges are being brought, people are being placed in removal proceedings with far greater ease,” said David Cox, an Immigration Attorney in St. Louis.

Cox said he saw instant impacts to his practice after President Donald Trump returned back to the Oval Office.

“They’re not ever seeing a judge, they’re just being put on planes and shipped out of here,” Cox said. “They’re basically detaining everybody that they catch and no bond is allowed. That wasn’t the case before. You could litigate and get out on a bond if you’re not a threat to the community.”

Owen Ramsingh, a Columbia man who has had a green card since 1986, was detained last week by ICE agents in Chicago after returning from the Netherlands and landing at O’Hare International Airport. He has been in detention since.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson wrote on Tuesday that Ramsingh was detained due to previous convictions involving drug possession. One charge was expunged and the other conviction occurred in the 1998.

The last information Ramsingh’s wife has is that Owen was being transferred to a detention center in El Paso, Texas. He has a court date in Illinois scheduled for Oct. 15.

German Gonzalez Herrera, an Immigration Attorney in St. Louis, said he receives at least 10 calls a day from people in ICE detention. He described how the new immigration policies have created less time for attorneys to take on cases. He said it used to take him six months to help build a case, but the increased workload has made that difficult.

“When they are in detention, it’s really hard to help them,” German Gonzalez Herrera said.

He said the bar for obtaining asylum status has been raised under the Trump administration and is unattainable for many coming from bad situations.

“You need to pay $100 to apply for asylum. So many people that enter into many states they don’t have money. They say ‘OK, how do I pay the $100?’” Gonzalez Herrera said.

Gonzalez Herrera said he has had to start discussing avenues outside of U.S. citizenship with his clients, due to cases becoming harder and harder to win.

“My recommendation is save the money,” Gonzalez Herrera said. “Talk with the judge, explain your situation, what happened to you and if there is a miracle and the judge granted asylum it is a miracle.”

Cox reiterated the difficulty migrants face as cases become harder to win.

“My practice has changed, and I think a lot of other attorneys that used to do removal work are no longer doing so. They’re (other attorneys) just like me because they can’t win those cases. And it’s just not fair to their clients to charge that money to provide a service that’s going to get them,” Cox said.

Brad Sandler, an Immigration Lawyer and Partner at Stinson LLP in St. Louis said new policies in place have caused confusion for many of his clients.

“I’m having to spend two or three times more than I normally would on those people that are already here trying to help them understand how these things are impacting them,” Sandler said.

Cox said that he’s seen citizenship applications skyrocket since the Trump administration took office.

“We used to do one ceremony occasionally, usually a couple of times a month here in Saint Louis to swear in new citizens. Now they’re at least two every week with 50 new applicants every time,” Cox said.

He explained how the Missouri Federal Courts are trying to curb the increased number of applicants.

“The courthouse here in St. Louis handles Friday cases. The Tuesday cases, which is the other day they have ceremonies every week, are done in the federal building here in Saint Louis,” Cox said.

Sandler suggested more opportunities for work- and student-related visas as a way to promote legal immigration opportunities.

“All those programs, the numbers have not been adjusted since the economy and the number of people have grown. They were set up, you know, like in the 1990s in the population and the need for those programs has grown,” Sandler said.

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