Commission on Immigration

South Texas Pro Bono Asylum
Representation Project (ProBAR)

South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR)

South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project
(ProBAR)

301 E. Madison Avenue
Harlingen, Texas 78550

The South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR) is a national effort to provide pro bono legal services to asylum seekers detained in South Texas by the United States government. The project recruits, trains and coordinates the activities of volunteer attorneys, law students and legal assistants. ProBAR is a joint project of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The Texas Access to Justice Foundation provides support to this project.

ProBAR's Purpose

Every year, hundreds of asylum seekers are detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South Texas. They have fled civil war, ethnic fighting and religious and political persecution. Most have little, if any, money by the time they arrive in the United States and are not able to hire counsel or post the substantial immigration bonds required for release.

Having language barriers, little understanding of U.S. law and court procedures, and few financial resources, they face almost insurmountable obstacles to proving their asylum claims. As a result, many risk being deported back to places where they may face persecution and even death based upon their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.

The responsibility has fallen on the private bar to offer legal assistance to these individuals. ProBAR provides the means by which the legal community can respond.

How Does ProBAR Work?

ProBAR is directed by an attorney coordinator located in Harlingen, Texas. The project works closely with local community based programs, the immigration court, and the organized bar to identify detained asylum seekers who have strong claims to asylum or other relief under U.S. law but, owing to indigence, cannot afford to hire private counsel.

The ProBAR coordinator matches asylum applicants requesting counsel with attorney volunteers who are available to travel to Harlingen to represent them. The coordinator discusses each case with the volunteer and provides support and guidance throughout the progress of the case. To the extent available, each attorney also is assisted by a volunteer law student, interpreter or legal assistant.

The staff at ProBAR make every effort to select cases and tailor procedures to make efficient use of a volunteer's time in South Texas. ProBAR's offices are designed to provide a volunteer attorney with a place to work, office equipment, and legal research materials. ProBAR also provides liability insurance coverage at no cost to volunteer attorneys working on ProBAR cases.

Who Can Help?

ProBAR is designed to utilize the services of volunteers who are not experienced in immigration law, as well as those who are. Attorneys need not be licensed in the state of Texas to participate. In addition, law students, under the direction of a supervising attorney, may be permitted to represent asylum applicants at their court hearings.

How to Participate?

There are a number of ways in which interested attorneys, law students, recent law graduates, legal assistants, and interpreters may participate:

Long-term attorney volunteers stay in South Texas for a period of two weeks, a month, or longer, and handle a number of cases in immigration court;
Short-term attorney volunteers are assigned one or more asylum cases in advance and travel to South Texas to represent detained asylum seekers at their immigration court hearings;
Law students, recent law school graduates, legal assistants, and interpreters, under attorney supervision, help complete applications, develop supporting documentation and legal memoranda, and prepare applicants to testify at their hearings. Proficiency in the Spanish language is preferred, but not required. Living and travel stipends may be available to qualified persons;
Volunteer attorneys outside of South Texas represent on appeal applicants denied asylum in the immigration courts, or assist persons applying for asylum in their own communities; and
Experienced immigration attorneys present training seminars and serve as attorney mentors to ProBAR volunteers.

For more information contact:
Meredith Linsky, ProBAR Director, 956/425-9231, 956/425-9233 (fax), probar@sbcglobal.net.

A project of the
American Bar Association
State Bar of Texas
American Immigration Lawyers Association

Open Positions

ProBAR ICAP Children's Paralegal

... in the NEWS!

"With the immigration law’s harsh new restrictions on asylum, ProBAR volunteer attorneys are needed more than ever to ensure that legitimate refugees are not sent back to their oppressors. For many refugees, ProBAR is literally a lifeline. It’s in the highest tradition of American justice, and it deserves broad support in communities across the country."

Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
Ranking Democrat, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration

"ProBAR offers vital legal assistance to refugees from around the world who have nowhere else to turn. At the same time, it provides our attorneys with unique hands-on court experience. The volunteers return with invaluable legal training, greater understanding of U.S. immigration laws, and a dedication to human rights."

Edith Hofmeister, Esq.
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, L.L.P.
San Francisco, California

"Volunteer attorneys are key to this program. Nonimmigration attorneys may initially feel uneasy working in an unfamiliar area of the law, but with some training and guidance they can very competently handle asylum cases -- and appreciate how hopelessly lost a refugee might be without legal assistance."

Marcos Ronquillo, Esq.
Dallas, Texas

Adult Legal Orientation Program for Immigrant Detainees (LOP)

ProBAR currently operates a Legal Orientation Program for individuals detained at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas. The program is funded by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), and administered by the Vera Institute of Justice. The Legal Orientation Program was created by EOIR in 2003, in order to facilitate legal assistance from non-profit organizations for immigrant detainees in removal proceedings. Immigrants in removal proceedings face extraordinary obstacles in proving their claims for relief, including language barriers, misinformation about U.S. laws and court procedures, and a lack of financial resources. For asylum seekers, many risk being deported back to places where they may face persecution and even death. Others face returning to a country they left as small children. The Legal Orientation Program seeks to improve access to legal services for the enormous number of immigrant detainees in removal proceedings each year through workshops on immigration law and procedure, referrals to pro bono attorneys for individuals who may qualify for relief from removal, and the distribution of self-help legal resources to individuals appearing in immigration proceedings pro se. Through ProBAR’s Legal Orientation Program, unrepresented detainees receive invaluable assistance in understanding their legal situations, and gain access to a variety of legal resources, enabling them to appear in Immigration Court with a better understanding of the court process and their legal rights.

Immigrant Children’s Assistance Project (ICAP)

Increased enforcement efforts by the Department of Homeland Security in recent years have resulted in an enormous and rapid increase in the number of unaccompanied children detained by the federal government in South Texas and placed in removal proceedings each year. ProBAR responded by expanding its programs in order to serve this vulnerable population. ProBAR assists detained unaccompanied immigrant children through its Immigrant Children’s Assistance Project, funded by the Texas Bar Foundation, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The Project includes a legal outreach program operated by the Vera Institute of Justice. Through this program, a ProBAR attorney interviews detained immigrant children, identifies those with legal relief, and if they remain in custody, secures counsel for them before the immigration court. Children detained by ORR in South Texas may also be ineligible for relief, yet, as children who are alone, afraid, and often traumatized, facing a foreign culture, language, and legal system, they still require assistance. ProBAR trains and coordinates the work of pro bono attorneys in conducting screenings and legal rights presentations for these children, educates the children about their rights and the legal process, and helps them navigate the complexities of the immigration system. Through its Immigrant Children’s Assistance Project, ProBAR works to improve access to legal services for detained immigrant children and to ensure that these children do not have to face the United States legal system alone.