© Mandel Ngan / AFP
Less than a year after Baltimore prosecutors ordered staff not to charge illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get the offenders deported, Maryland's largest city will hire immigration attorneys to help those facing removal. It's important to note that
Baltimore has the nation's highest per capita homicide rate and has been coined the
deadliest big city in the United States by a mainstream newspaper. Nevertheless,
a city panel approved spending $200,000 this month to pay for lawyers to represent illegal aliens with deportation orders. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says in a local
news report that the goal is for everyone to get due process. "We're not making a decision as to their status, we're making the decision to be supportive of individuals who live in our city," according to the mayor.
Unlike the criminal justice system, in immigration court the government doesn't offer free lawyers to those who can't afford them. This means that
illegal aliens who don't have the money to pay for one must represent themselves in legal proceedings or rely on volunteer attorneys or paralegals provided by immigrant rights groups. This leaves many illegal aliens in removal proceedings without adequate legal representation. The trend of using taxpayer dollars to assist illegal aliens in deportation proceedings
started under the Obama administration. In 2015, the former president allocated
$2 million to hire attorneys to represent the influx of illegal alien minors in federal immigration proceedings. The money flowed through a special program, Justice AmeriCorps, launched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
Comment: Another emotional reunion between mother and son may be seen here. But these few short videos cannot begin to explain the anguish and hardship endured by the Syrians who have had to survive the induced tribulations of western empire for going on seven years now.