Ruling Says Deportation Cases May Not Be Appealed Over Lawyer Errors

Ruling Says Deportation Cases May Not Be Appealed Over Lawyer Errors - NYTimes.com, Jan. 8, 2009:

The Bush administration has issued a ruling that illegal immigrants do not have a constitutional right to effective legal representation in deportation hearings, closing off one of the most common avenues for appealing deportation decisions.

The ruling, by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, concerns three appeals by people ordered to be deported who said their cases had been hurt by mistakes by their lawyers. Mr. Mukasey wrote in an opinion released late Wednesday that “neither the Constitution nor any statutory or regulatory provision entitles an alien to a do-over if his initial removal proceeding is prejudiced by the mistakes of a privately retained lawyer.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is trying to address problems in the immigration bar: EOIR Implements Regulation To Enhance Attorney Discipline Program, DOJ press release, Jan. 6, 2009. Those new rules are at 73 Fed. Reg. 76914 (Dec. 18, 2008). (I found this when I was looking for Mukasy's opinion, which I didn't find.)