The landscape of asylum cases has dramatically shifted in recent years. Three years ago, asylum seekers had a 50 percent chance of gaining protection in court. Today, the odds have plummeted to 6 percent. A recent rule change allows asylum officers to direct cases to immigration court without initial interviews. This is part of a broader effort to enforce stricter evidentiary standards and accelerate deportations.
Despite the increasing challenges, legal representation plays a crucial role. Immigrants with lawyers are 4.7 times more likely to succeed in their cases compared to those without legal help. Skilled attorneys can guide clients through the asylum process and explore other possible protection pathways. Legal expertise is vital as navigating the system becomes increasingly difficult. However, more than half of immigrants remain unrepresented due to financial and accessibility barriers.
The situation in rural America is especially concerning. Here, about 1.8 million immigrants live, representing 5 percent of the population. They are indispensable to their communities, making up 28 percent of the rural agricultural workforce and 14 percent of rural medical professionals. Yet, finding an immigration attorney in small towns is challenging. Rural areas house 20 percent of the U.S. population but have just 2 percent of its practicing attorneys overall. These regions, often called “legal deserts,” rely heavily on a few attorneys working pro bono.
“In these rural legal deserts, AI technology has the potential to make a significant impact.”
An asylum application typically demands 50 to 75 hours of research, management, and document review over several months. AI excels in such tasks by easing research and minimizing repetitive tasks, freeing up time for attorneys to meet clients or take on additional cases.
During my time in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire, I witnessed attorneys forced to decline cases due to insufficient staff. This experience led me to develop AI software to help attorneys gather essential sources for asylum claims, thereby enabling them to handle more cases. AI is increasingly common in legal settings. Many firms now incorporate AI into their operations.
Thomson Reuters reports that their AI for Justice program increases efficiency, allowing nonprofits to prepare urgent cases 75 percent faster. The Innocence Center, which aims to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, has reduced the time for wrongful-conviction petitions from one year to six months. A University of California-Berkeley study revealed that 90 percent of legal aid lawyers using generative AI tools experienced higher productivity, especially in research and documentation tasks.
While AI technology has limitations like generating inaccurate statistics, well-designed tools can address these issues through audit logs and ensuring source verifiability. Attorney oversight remains crucial. AI serves as a valuable tool, providing leverage rather than replacing lawyers.
Discussions often focus on AI’s threat to employment, overlooking its potential to enhance capacity in under-resourced areas. In rural immigration law and other fields, we should explore how AI can boost representation and service delivery in communities in dire need.
Ella Tesone is a high school student from Norwich, Vt., and the founder of Asyla LLC, offering AI-driven software for immigration attorneys.
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