Overview

• Advocacy groups and attorneys report that only a small fraction of migrants have secured legal representation during expedited asylum screenings, despite administration promises of guaranteed access to counsel.
• Jones Day, a large law firm partnering with the administration, has only taken on two formal clients but handled hundreds of phone consultations. Other groups provided limited phone advice.
• The percentage of migrants passing initial asylum screenings has decreased, and a lawsuit seeks to halt the screenings due to lack of attorney access.
• Thousands of asylum screenings have reportedly occurred, but the administration has not disclosed the total number conducted in Border Patrol custody.
• While the Biden administration ended a Trump-era program of extremely fast screenings, the current process still moves too quickly for most migrants to obtain counsel, groups argue.