A Public Defender but for People in Immigration Detention

Andrea Solis Canto is a 2026 Independence Foundation Phyllis W. Beck Public Interest Law Fellow. Andrea’s fellowship is based at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, where she provides pro bono legal representation to detained and non-detained noncitizens who are at imminent risk of deportation based on a prior deportation order. She is a 2025 graduate of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and has interned with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, the American Immigration Council, Nationalities Service Center, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review. 

In the face of current and shifting federal immigration policies, the right to counsel has never been more critical. Yet, for indigent noncitizens in Pennsylvania, that right is often out of reach. While the Pennsylvania Immigrant Family Unity Project (PAIFUP)—the state’s first public defender model for noncitizens—provides free representation for those in active immigration removal proceedings, a significant gap remains.

Currently, Pennsylvania has only eight attorneys—two of whom are fellows—dedicated to this work, a stark contrast to states like New York, where universal immigration representation receives millions in funding. Within this landscape, individuals with prior deportation orders are often left to navigate the system entirely alone. Because these cases require rapid response, even established organizations often lack the capacity to take them on.

My Independence Foundation Beck Fellowship with PAIFUP, now housed within the Community Defense Unit (Immigration Practice) at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, fills this gap. As someone who immigrated to the U.S. as a child and witnessed how the system often fails families, I view this work as a fundamental defense of human dignity. 

PAIFUP primarily represents noncitizens in active immigration proceedings, in detention and once they are released from detention, so that they can pursue their valid claims to stay in the United States. But PAIFUP lacks the capacity and funding to represent those with existing deportation orders–even when those orders may have been through no fault of their own and where individuals have valid and genuine claims for protection from harm. 

PAIFUP regularly receives urgent calls and referrals from community organizations for individuals needing post-order representation, but we cannot take them. My fellowship extends PAIFUP’s reach to include individuals facing rapid deportation due to having final deportation orders. My role is to reopen their immigration cases, arguing for the right to seek asylum when previous proceedings were flawed or due process was violated.

I cannot stress enough how instrumental Independence Foundation’s support is to fill this gap in legal services–even having one person who can provide this service makes the difference between swift deportation with no process and the ability to stay in the United States. 

Take one of my clients, Mateo.* Mateo is a Cuban national who suffered government repression and persecution in his native country. He came to the United States seeking safety but was instead forced across the border under the United States’ remain-in-Mexico policy. From Mexico, he was kidnapped and tortured, making it impossible for him to attend his hearing on the other side of the border in the United States. After this horrible trauma, he again sought entry into the United States and was permitted to enter as he attempted to resolve his case and reopen it. 

But before he could do so, the government placed him in a detention facility. I filed a motion to reopen for him, with 600 pages of corroborating evidence of the harm he had faced in his home country and explaining that he missed his hearing because of his kidnapping and torture in Mexico.

The judge denied our motion because my client couldn’t remember the exact date that he was kidnapped. 

I have another client who was issued a final deportation order because he missed an immigration court hearing because he was hospitalized after a near-death motorcycle accident that left him unable to walk. That case is still pending, and, if we are successful, he will be able to regain the ability to seek asylum from his home country, where he would be persecuted because of his sexual orientation.

The impact of prior removal orders is felt most heavily in Philadelphia’s Southeast Asian, West African, and Latine communities. Often, these are individuals who have lived in our city for years, only to be detained during routine check-ins due to a decades-old order or a missed hearing caused by language barriers or a lack of notice. 

I’ve visited people in detention at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center near State College, FCI Lewisburg, and the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. I have provided dozens of legal consultations and developed materials to ensure that those in detention understand their rights and remedies. I also collaborate with community-based organizations to provide know your rights clinics to mitigate detention risk and deportation.

The individuals I represent are remarkably resilient and just asking for the chance to pursue their claims for protection. They often express that they would rather face a difficult legal battle from within a detention center than be forced back to a country where their lives are at risk. 

It is an honor to be part of Independence Foundation’s Beck Fellowship program and to help advance the foundation’s effort to provide legal representation to underserved communities. 

*Pseudonym to protect anonymity