Migrant crisis highlights challenges with immigration law 

 

By Pippa Fung

 

PHOENIX – With the high rate of migrants that entered the United States in 2023, immigration law has had to evolve to accommodate for the amount of people waiting to file for asylum, most notably affecting processes like crossing the southern border and finding legal representation.

 

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, around 2.5 million migrants were encountered at the border in FY2023. This was higher than the previous two years by nearly 100,000 people, preventing standard systems like filing for asylum from operating as usual. To combat this, governments have been discussing new legislation in hopes of streamlining this process, particularly at the border and in court; however, some worry that it will harm migrants more than it helps.

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When migrants reach the border, they must be detained until they have a background check run on them. If everything goes smoothly, migrants should then be released with a Notice to Appear (NTA) providing a court date and address for them to defend their files for asylum. 

 

However, one Arizona Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) agent, who wished to remain anonymous in light of repercussions from his employment, said that this is not easy. Border Patrol facilities are “over capacity everywhere”, he said, and cartels have an increasingly harmful and invasive presence at the border as well.

 

READ MORE: Migrant Crisis Leads to Stress Within Border Patrol 

 

From there, migrants must find representation to help them with their asylum claims in court. The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a non-profit organization in Arizona, aims to provide this. 

 

Legal representation is a big challenge for migrants, explained Greer Millard, the communications manager at the Florence Project, as there are not enough attorneys to serve everyone. This means migrants often have to represent themselves, which is difficult if they do not know English or how the courts work. 

 

Hillary Walsh, the founder and president of New Frontier Immigration Law, agreed, saying that the rate of migrants who won their court cases was so low because many of them did not have access to proper representative resources.

 

She added that this is exacerbated because people are only considered to be residents after staying in the United States for over 180 days. This leaves migrants unable to find work and therefore sustain themselves while filing for asylum, and they are ineligible for using government resources in the meantime.

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The Florence Project provides legal services at detention centers, where migrants may be held until their court dates, and at the Migrant Welcome Center in Nogales, one of Arizona’s port of entries. There, migrants are often looking to reunite with family or sponsors elsewhere in the U.S., so instead of starting to represent them, the Florence Project gives consultations so that migrants can better present their own cases and has resources in Pima and Maricopa counties to do the same. 

 

However, Millard said, this is not enough. 

 

The Florence Project does not have the capacity to expand to other areas of Arizona where people may need legal assistance, and they are limited in what they can do for migrants until they are able to file for asylum, which can in itself be a long and arduous journey.

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In response to the challenges that migrants face when coming to the U.S., state and federal governments have been discussing law changes that could alleviate pressure from the current immigration system. 

 

In Arizona, a combination of Senate and House bills collectively referred to as the “Arizona Invasion Act” supported classifying illegal border crossings as state crimes, making the migrant crisis a criminalization defense issue instead of a deportation one. 

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However, the Florence Project is not qualified to work in criminal defense; furthermore, Millard said that “immigration law is federal law, and state level judges aren’t really qualified to adjudicate those types of cases.” 

 

The “Arizona Invasion Act” ended up being vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs in early March, but Millard said that this still would have been “catastrophic” for the people they serve.

 

Regarding recent federal measures, such as the Senate supplemental bill, to increase border security and put more funding towards Border Patrol, the BORTAC agent said that “it seems like there are lawmakers who are just talking a big game”, as he often sees discussions of changing immigration law but rarely sees these changes around him in real life. 

 

Walsh advocated for both making it easier to get a work visa in the U.S. and for more systemic change, reframing the migrant crisis to be viewed “as skilled workers who just want to come to work in the U.S.”

 

“Every law [for] such a modern and dynamic situation needs to be updated for the world we’re living in,” the BORTRAC agent said. But in the end, he suggested that until more diplomatic measures are taken to help the countries that migrants are fleeing from, “there isn’t any one solution. Just a lot of nuance in a lot of the situations at play.”

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