Day Seventeen: Justice?

     Why did the families come to THIS country?  They do have other choices.  Does this country still enjoy a good reputation for, at a bare minimum, justice and humanitarian treatment of people within its borders?   Apparently, that is the reputation, but I am not convinced that this country is worthy of that reputation.

     Today, this project's fifth asylum case was scheduled here on site.  This means the family and the lawyer are here, in one of the temporary metal buildings with an A/V connection to an Immigration Court several states away.  The view from here is usually the judge, the attorney for the government and the interpreter, sitting about 15-20 feet from one another, all on one little 20" screen.  Each head is less than one inch in diameter.  There goes reading facial expressions or body language.   Often, the camera zooms in on the interpreter, so that the client has a better chance of understanding what is said.  The client nor the attorney can see the judge when this happens.

     The attorney representing the mother has left her practice behind for yet another week (she's come back from her first or second week of volunteering, when she met this client.  She has flown across the country several days before the hearing in order to prepare the family for the hearing.  She pays for all of her own expenses.  No small sacrifice.

     The hearing starts at 3:00.  The attorney questions the mother about the chain of attacks, her abusive spouse for about 80 minutes.  One must make a complete record, just in case you need to appeal the decision.  At this point, the government's attorney and the judge announce that they stop at 4:30, and the case will need to be continued.  The attorney must leave this place by 9:30 tomorrow, so they will try to squeeze the rest of her story, the cross-examination and the reading of the judge's decision into another 90 minutes tomorrow.  If that isn't possible, the pro bono attorney will make another trip to lovely Artesia.

     This woman has been living in prison-like setting for four months.  Today was her opportunity to secure her future here.  She could not even see the person listening to her in order to make that decision.  The end of someone else's work day shut down her presentation of her painful past.  Her attorney may need to sacrifice more time away from her practice and foot her own travel expenses if this is not concluded tomorrow.

     Justice?