Research tip: Data on case outcomes

TRAC’s Details on Deportation Proceedings tool allows users to examine court outcomes by representation status and customize the data locally.[]See the tool at https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/nta. For example, advocates seeking information on rates of representation among detained people in a specific state may select an “Immigration Court State” from the left column, “Custody” from the middle column, and “Represented” from the right column. For all TRAC tools, consult the page’s “About the Data” section for important notes about how to correctly interpret the data.

Notably, differences in outcome rates alone are insufficient to claim that legal representation caused positive outcomes, and more sophisticated statistical techniques would be needed to eliminate alternative explanations. The data can, however, be combined with findings from research studies that have shown evidence of a causal effect (such as Vera’s NYIFUP evaluation) to demonstrate the positive impact of representation on case outcomes.[]Jennifer Stave, Peter Markowitz, Karen Berberich, et al., Evaluation of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project: Assessing the Impact of Legal Representation (New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2017), https://perma.cc/B69M-E6ET.