EOIR’s Legal Orientation Program will Reduce Detention Time
The Executive Office for
Immigration Review has announced a new Legal Orientation Program that it hopes
will improve the efficiency of immigration proceedings. Under the program,
private nonprofit agencies will provide information about the immigration legal
process to detained foreigners facing removal hearing. The detainees will be
given essential information about court procedures, self-help materials,
referrals to pro bono attorneys and available options for legal relief prior to
their first immigration hearing. EOIR Director Kevin Rooney said, “everyone
will benefit from this innovative program. The detained individual benefits from
better information about his legal situation, and the taxpayer gains with
reduced detention costs through a more efficient legal process.”
In 1998, the EOIR funded three
90-day pilot projects to evaluate the benefits of such programs in Port Isabel,
EOIR,
a component of the Department of Justice, is responsible for providing due
process to individuals who are charged with immigration law violations. A
congressional appropriation of $1 million funds the Legal Orientation Program.
Norwich University of Northfield, Vermont handles the program under contract and
will oversee six separate non-profit agencies, which will conduct the program
locally. More than 23,000 DHS detainees are expected to benefit from the program
in the first year, nearly 20 percent of the detainees who appear in the
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