Criminal migrants across the country are increasingly avoiding deportation thanks to an unlikely source: public attorneys using local taxpayer dollars to represent them in immigration court.
Foreign nationals facing criminal prosecution have long been provided Supreme Court-mandated legal advice on the potential impacts of guilty pleas. However, public attorneys are more frequently representing non-citizens in deportation proceedings, sparking ethical concerns from immigration hawks who note that there’s no legal requirement for free lawyers in civil court.
“You don’t have a right to pay counsel in civil proceedings any more than you do in tenant-landlord court or divorce court,” Art Arthur, a resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Arthur — who previously served as an immigration judge — highlighted how government-funding for immigration attorneys is becoming more common across the U.S.
“If they’re going to provide free counsel to respondents — which is how we refer to them in immigration court — are they providing free counsel to people facing bankruptcy, to people who are facing eviction, to people who are attempting to get out of abuse of marriages?” Arthur continued. “I got a feeling the answer that probably no.”
The Money Spigot
State and local jurisdictions across the country turbocharged funding for migrant legal services from roughly $250 million in 2024 to around $350 million in 2025, according to the Vera Institute of Justice, a left-wing non-profit organization behind the explosive growth of public deportation defense in the U.S. Four additional states invested in deportation defense initiatives in 2025, bringing the national total to at least 14 state-level programs.
Public defense of illegal immigrants and other non-citizens can potentially take well over a year to fully adjudicate, draining public funds and resources from local budgets. In one case reviewed by the DCNF, a foreign national accused of repeatedly masturbating in public spent nearly two years contesting his deportation order, and eventually won his case with the help of a government-funded attorney.
Unlike in criminal cases, immigration violations are generally considered civil violations and thus no 6th Amendment right to an attorney for such proceedings exists. However, a growing number of Democrat-led localities have carved out funding for foreign nationals facing deportation as they seek to buck the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Public attorneys are required to inform their clients of the potential risk of deportation resulting from a guilty plea, a mandate the Supreme Court established in Padilla v. Kentucky in 2010.
In Padilla v. Kentucky, a lawful permanent resident faced deportation after pleading guilty to drug-related charges in Kentucky. The petitioner claimed that his counsel failed to advise him of the potential consequences of his guilty plea. His case made it all the way to the highest court in the nation, ultimately establishing non-citizens’ right to advisories in criminal cases.
The public defender’s Immigration Defense Unit in Atlanta assisted a total of 383 non-citizen clients in Padilla v. Kentucky advisories throughout 2025, many of whom were accused of driving under the influence, hit and run, shoplifting, drug possession and other charges, according to documents obtained via FOIA requests. The Immigration Division within the Cook County Public Defender’s Office in 2025 assisted at least one foreign national in criminal court accused of sexually abusing a victim under 13 years of age in the Chicago area, according to other FOIA documents obtained by the DCNF.
But both offices have gone the extra step in providing representation to non-citizen clients facing deportation proceedings.
Of the nearly 400 foreign nationals assisted by Atlanta public defenders in 2025, at least five were provided direct representation in immigration court, according to FOIA documents. The Cook County Public Defender’s Office confirmed its immigration division represented individuals in 109 cases before federal immigration court throughout 2025, with cases held in various jurisdictions across the U.S.
While the immigration units in Atlanta and Cook County have benefited from collaboration with private organizations that focus on migrant legal services, both offices are also supported by taxpayer funding in their respective communities. Cook County recently approved funding to beef up its immigration unit, adding up to seven new positions for 2026 within the county’s $10 billion budget plan.
Similar public immigration units exist in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Nashville and elsewhere, typically benefitting from public-private partnerships.
New York City has long doled out millions for deportation defense services, even when the city was under dire financial strains during the Biden-era immigration crisis. Lawmakers in New York State acquiesced to activists’ demands in March for roughly $175 million in immigrant legal defense spending, bringing total spending to $183 million in migrant legal and social services spending for fiscal year 2027.
In March, Boston Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu announced millions in additional funding for immigrant services, with the mayor specifically citing “ongoing attacks” by the Trump administration as reason for the move.
‘A Profound Conflict Of Interest’
When Cape Verdean national Lucio Tomar, a level 3 sex offender living in Boston, was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in May 2024 after publicly exposing his genitals over a two-decade period, he was ordered deported by an immigration judge.
However, thanks to the government-funded services provided by the Immigration Impact Unit within Massachusetts’ Committee For Public Counsel Services, he successfully beat back his deportation, restored his legal status and got released from ICE custody, according to court documents obtained by the DCNF.
The Committee for Public Counsel Services — which denied a DCNF FOIA request by claiming its office is not subject to records request law — enjoys millions in public funding from Massachusetts taxpayers every year. Similar immigration units exist in numerous other state-run public defender offices, such as the Regional Immigration Assistance Centers (RIAC) within New York State’s Office of Indigent Legal Services (ILS), an office that told the DCNF it does not posses information about the number of migrant clients it serves every year.
Migrant criminals are not only being increasingly served by free immigration attorneys, but are also receiving a helping hand from the very prosecutors tasked with holding them accountable. Democrat district attorneys across the country are actively weighing the risk of deportation when considering charges and sentencing against non-citizen defendants.
After first winning office in 2017, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner created a position within his office specifically tasked with helping migrant defendants avoid deportation. Since that time, this position has worked with migrants charged with very serious offenses, like rape of a child, rape, sexual assault, arson and murder, according to prior investigations.
Other high-profile liberal prosecutors across the country have also declared they are considering immigration consequences when determining charges for non-citizens, such as Fairfax County, Virginia, District Attorney Steve Descano and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“It’s mind boggling that prosecuting attorneys are now taking violations of immigration law into account as a mitigating factor,” Matt O’Brien, deputy executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the DCNF.
“And to top it all off, immigration impact units are staffed by defense attorneys, but funded and run by prosecutor’s offices — which is a profound conflict of interest,” O’Brien continued. “Meanwhile, foreigners wind up treated more favorably by the courts than citizens of this country, because they are accorded privileges — based on their immigration status — that simply aren’t available to Americans.”
Despite complying with identical FOIA requests in 2021 and 2024, Krasner’s office claimed it did not have access to what cases its immigration counsel worked on when approached with a DCNF request for its 2025 calendar year.
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