Mentally ill immigrants deported without representation

"The government holds, on average, more than 30,000 immigrants with unresolved status in detention on any given day. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials do not know how many are mentally disabled, but class-action attorneys estimate as many as 1,000 immigration detainees have a "serious mental illness."  In January 2011, Inlender and a group of pro bono law firms identified Canto-Ortiz, a native of Mexico who came to the U.S. as a child, as a potential plaintiff in the lawsuit they filed last year. It is the first class-action suit on behalf of detainees with severe mental disabilities who go through the immigration courts without access to attorneys." - Deia DeBrito, Orange County Register, Feb. 18, 2012.