More Legal Help for Migrants

The rise in human smuggling across Southern California is creating a cottage industry of lawyers who represent immigrants captured in police raids, legal help that federal authorities said has ultimately allowed some illegal immigrants to avoid deportation.

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Federal officials said that immigrants who receive legal representation are far less likely to accept immediate deportation.

The lawyers secure the immigrant’s release while they await deportation hearings.

Only about half of those released ever return for their hearings, the officials said.