US Governance — 2026-04-24
DOJ Immigration Legal Office Stalled as Lawyers Reassigned to Clerk Duties
The
Analysis
The effective shutdown of the Recognition and Accreditation program eliminates the federal certification pathway that authorized 2,600 non-attorney representatives at over 900 nonprofits to practice immigration law, creating a bottleneck that compounds the broader immigration legal aid contraction. The reassignment of legal staff to clerk duties under Comans's order is functionally a dissolution without the procedural requirements of formal closure, a pattern consistent with how the administration has neutralized other DOJ sub-offices it cannot politically disband. The 330-nonprofit protest letter to Acting AG Blanche is the trailing indicator: by the time the letter reaches the acting AG, the operational capacity it seeks to restore has already atrophied beyond quick repair.
The effective shutdown of the Recognition and Accreditation program eliminates the federal certification pathway that authorized 2,600 non-attorney representatives at over 900 nonprofits to practice immigration law, creating a bottleneck that compounds the broader immigration legal aid contraction. The reassignment of legal staff to clerk duties under Comans's order is functionally a dissolution without the procedural requirements of formal closure, a pattern consistent with how the administration has neutralized other DOJ sub-offices it cannot politically disband. The 330-nonprofit protest letter to Acting AG Blanche is the trailing indicator: by the time the letter reaches the acting AG, the operational capacity it seeks to restore has already atrophied beyond quick repair.