Additional time and resources will be needed to improve legal representation of the poor in immigration courts, participants in a discussion at last week’s annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association agreed.

“A startling number of detained and non-detained immigrants don’t have lawyers,” said Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (See Profile), who has been spearheading an extended effort to alleviate what is regarded by many as a crisis.