This article is excerpted from a lecture given at the Federal Bar Council’s presentation of its Learned Hand Medal to Second Circuit Judge Robert A. Katzmann. For the complete lecture, click here.
This evening I speak to you about what we, together, bench and bar, can do to help meet an urgent, pressing needthe need for adequate representation for a vulnerable population of human beingsimmigrants. Immigrants often come to this country in fear, fleeing from persecution, escaping from poverty, not knowing the language, not knowing to whom to turn for competent legal advice, all the while working to make a better life. In all too many cases, the dearth of adequate counsel all but dooms the immigrant’s chances to realize the American dream. And, what would the American dream have been, what would the United States be, without the dreams, the sweat, the reality, the culture, food, music, the dynamism of millions of immigrants who have enriched and do enrich this nation?
