Local organizations are concerned that the change will mean that more immigrants will go without legal help in immigration court and hearings.
Olga Guerrero Gonzalez is overwhelmed.
Since 2023, she has been representing individuals in immigration court and hearings as a fully accredited representative at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, allowing her to represent people in immigration court. That unique status, provided by the Department of Justice’s Recognition & Accreditation program, has allowed thousands of non-attorneys to provide legal support to immigrants who would not otherwise have it for the last 60 years.
But this year, that program has been quietly stripped down, leading to a backlog of applications and renewals for accredited representatives.
The federal government reassigned attorneys in charge of the R & A program to entry-level clerk positions in March, leaving behind two supporting staff with no authority to approve or renew applications.
More than six months on, the impact of those changes is clear. In an analysis of public reports, Borderless Magazine found that the federal department has approved nearly half as many accredited representative applications nationwide between Jan.1 and Oct. 18 of this year, compared to the same period last year.
Immigrant organizations told Borderless that under the Trump administration, they have seen longer wait times for R & A applications and renewals, with some representatives waiting a year to hear back, compared to the three to six months experts say it typically takes. While accredited representatives can still provide legal support while awaiting renewal, those applying for the first time cannot practice until they receive approval.
In response to Borderless’ questions, a DOJ representative wrote only that the office in charge of the R & A program “declines to comment on personnel matters.”
“We just feel like the incredible work we are doing is just unfortunately not enough,” Guerrero said. “Thinking of the reality in which there are no longer any accredited representatives — I cannot even fathom what that would mean for the community that we are trying to serve and the people we are representing.”
‘They want to become part of the solution.’
Unlike in criminal court, where defendants have a right to a free, court-appointed lawyer, individuals facing immigration court must find and pay for their own lawyers. Nationally, 67% of immigrants facing deportation in immigration court lack legal assistance, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.
The DOJ R & A program is meant to address this challenge by “increasing the availability of legal representatives for low-income and indigent immigrants” and providing legal support through recognized organizations.
Representatives can either be partially or fully accredited. While partial accreditation allows them to assist clients and appear before the Department of Homeland Security, full accreditation allows them to represent clients in immigration court. Individuals must undergo a series of training sessions with a recognized organization in order to achieve either partial or full accreditation.
Accredited representatives are often immigrants themselves, looking to help members of their own community in “lawyer deserts,” according to Michele Pistone, law professor at Villanova University. Pistone leads the Villanova Interdisciplinary Immigration Studies Training for Advocates, an online certification program for students interested in accompanying immigrants at check-ins, hearings, meetings or appointments, or to become accredited representatives.
“There are so many people in our communities who want to take action on behalf of immigrant families; they want to serve their communities,” Pistone said. “They are responding at a human level to the disruption that immigration places on lives and families. And they want to become part of the solution.”
As of Oct. 18, the DOJ R & A program had over 2,600 accredited representatives active in over 900 recognized organizations nationwide. Chicago is home to 32 of these organizations, including NIJC and the Syrian Community Network.
SCN has been a recognized organization since 2019, and two members of their six-person team are accredited, with another’s initial accreditation application pending before the DOJ. Between June 2025 and June 2026, those representatives gave legal support to 747 individuals from 49 countries, according to Al Peters, SCN’s director of immigration.
Peters, who was SCN’s first accredited representative, said their team is overwhelmed with requests for legal help. As of June 2026, they had submitted around 1,200 applications to USCIS on behalf of clients that are still awaiting adjudication.
“You do need to know your way around the system, and so having representation really helps people,” Peters said. “Without the program, it is only attorneys that can do it. And attorneys are expensive.”
Having legal support can mean the difference between staying in the United States or being deported. A Congressional Research Service study looking at a decade of immigration court data found that asylum seekers without legal representation were successful only 19% of the time, compared to 47% of asylum seekers who had a lawyer or legal representative.
Trusted members of the community
Beyond free legal aid, one of the benefits of the R & A program for immigrants is access to help from people who have faced similar challenges.
Klarida Brahimaj immigrated to Chicago from Albania four years ago. She remembers feeling alone and confused when dealing with her own immigration case. Now, Brahimaj says she provides the same support she wished she had.
Klarida Brahimaj, immigration services manager at Syrian Community Network, says she provides the support for immigrants that she wished she had when she immigrated from Albania.
As a partially accredited representative at SCN, she assists immigrants with representation before DHS as they petition for immigration benefits such as green cards, naturalization or other types of applications before DHS.
“Being a new immigrant myself and facing all these challenges, I was at the right place at the right time,” she said. “I wanted to help people in the same situation as me, help people and families be together, be united, to feel safe.”
Villanova’s Pistone said that having representatives that come from similar backgrounds as the immigrants asking for help is powerful.
“It is a way for people who have lived experience, speak the languages, understand the cultures, to really put those skills to work and in a way that makes them uniquely qualified to be doing the work because they have that lived experience,” Pistone said. “They speak the language and understand the culture and are trusted members of the community.”
The R & A program also offers established immigrants a chance to work in the legal field.
SCN’s Peters said that many representatives he knows had attended law school in their home country, but their credits don’t transfer to the United States. Others have a deep understanding of immigration law as paralegals and want to advance their careers.
“It is an incredible career pathway for some people,” he said. “A lot of refugees and asylees who decide they want to work in this field — this is a very logical way for them to go … This is their livelihood.”
In Chicago, The Resurrection Project launched its Colibrí Fellowship to help bridge the gap between the number of culturally competent legal representatives and immigrants who need accessible legal representation.
The program has 27 new fellows in its newest cohort who are working toward accreditation. Nearly all fellows are immigrants or children of immigrants.
“The importance of this program is supporting career growth for these folks, and it is increasing culturally relevant, accessible legal services in people’s preferred language,” said Jane Lombardi, TRP’s vice president of programs. “They are receiving services from people that look like them.”
The Colibrí Fellowship is being replicated by other organizations in Oregon, Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
Expanding the pool of accredited representatives is important, said Pistone, especially in areas where there are fewer immigration lawyers.
“We find that a lot of accredited representatives are doing work in what we refer to as lawyer deserts,” Pistone said. “If accredited representatives weren’t there, there would be nobody.”
‘Harmful staffing cuts’
In late March, CBS reported that the Justice Department “quietly gutted” the R & A program, dramatically reducing the number of staff. The DOJ has not commented on the staffing cuts nor communicated the changes to partner organizations.
Data the DOJ released earlier this week, however, paints a stark picture of the changes. While 470 representatives received accreditation between Jan. 1 and Oct. 18, 2025, only 239 did during the same period this year.
Local organizations told Borderless they have experienced major delays in applications and renewals under the Trump administration.
SCN’s Peters said that the typical timeframe to hear back about applications is between three and six months. Now, he says, they’ve waited around a year to hear back about application statuses. Trisha Teofilo Olave of the NIJC says her conversations with other national organizations corroborate this.
“We have submitted applications to renew folks’ accreditation and renewal of recognition for the agency, and we had heard that those were taking months. Now it seems like those are even more delayed,” she said.
She says they have been waiting for applications submitted as far back as July 2025 to be approved.
Aouni Ibrahim applied to be an accredited representative in late March 2026, right around the time of the staffing cuts at the R & A program.
He was in the process of training to become a lawyer in Syria when he moved to Chicago a decade ago. Hoping to continue in the same line of work, Ibrahim began volunteering at SCN.
“When I came here, I did not want to lose all my background education,” he said.
Ibrahim is unsure when he will become an accredited representative. In the meantime, he works as a paralegal.
“I hope soon I can get experience to continue on in my career.”
NIJC’s Guerrero is also waiting to hear back from the DOJ. Her accreditation expired in early October, and she applied to renew it a few weeks prior. She says there’s no way of knowing when they will get back to her.
Last month, nine U.S. senators called on Attorney General Todd Blanche to “undo the Department’s harmful staffing cuts and reassignments and either reinstate or train the necessary staff to restore the program’s ability to process both new and renewal applications for individuals and nonprofit organizations in a timely manner.” Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth was among those who signed the letter.
One of the concerns raised by the senators was the potential rise in fraud, since “the R&A program helps immigrants distinguish between legitimate, quality legal counsel from untrained or fraudulent individuals who give faulty or incorrect legal advice to immigrants, often while charging exorbitant fees.”
Such scams, commonly called notario fraud, also worry Guerrero. She comes from an immigrant family and worked as a paralegal before getting her accreditation.
“These are people in need,” Guerrero said. “These are people in very dire situations. They are just trying to do whatever it takes to have their day in court.”
While she waits for her renewal notice, Guerrero plans to continue serving immigrants, making sure as many people as possible have their rights in court protected.
“Our clients have stories that they want to tell,” she said. “We have the skills and the tools to help them do that.”
Tara Mobasher es redactora del boletín y reportera de Borderless Magazine. Envíe un correo electrónico a Tara a [email protected].
