Van Der Hout Associate publishes law review article with Stanford Law Review and opinion piece in SF Chronicle about how California is failing to meet its constitutional obligations to noncitizens caught in the criminal enforcement system

Associate Attorney Rebecca Kutlow and UCLA Law Professor Ingrid Eagly recently published an opinion piece in the SF Chronicle about the representation of noncitizens in the criminal enforcement system in California. The opinion piece was based off of a study that was recently published in the Stanford Law Review. Ms. Kutlow, Ms. Eagly, and two of their colleagues, Tali Gires and Eliana Navarro Gracian conducted an empirical study of the services and resources available in California’s 58 counties for representing noncitizen individuals in criminal proceedings. The study researched the implementation of a supreme court case, Padilla v. Kentucky, in California’s public defense system and looked at how indigent noncitizen defendants are being represented.

As the opinion piece explains, “In our research, we found that most counties in the state have not yet hired any immigration experts, severely compromising their ability to effectively represent noncitizens. And though some large counties, like Alameda, San Francisco, Contra Costa and Los Angeles have managed to hire one or more dedicated immigration experts, that staffing is still too thin.” The articles articulate how increased county funding can help provide effective counsel for noncitizens facing criminal charges in California.

Read full SF Chronicle article here.

Read full Stanford law review article here.