Precarious Legal Patchworking: Detained Immigrants' Access to Justice.

This article examines how detained immigrants in the United States navigate the immigration legal system amid limited access to legal representation, a situation shaped by punitive immigration laws and systemic racial and economic inequalities. It introduces the concept of "Precarious Legal Patchworking" (PLP), describing how detained immigrants combine fragile strategies—such as relying on untrustworthy lawyers, Jailhouse Lawyers (detained individuals who assist others with legal paperwork), and self-representation—to seek relief from detention and deportation. The study, based on interviews with 55 formerly detained immigrants in Southern California, highlights significant barriers including language and literacy challenges, overburdened legal aid programs, and the adversarial nature of immigration courts that lack guaranteed counsel for immigrants. While PLP demonstrates detainees’ resilience and ingenuity, it often yields precarious and limited success, underscoring how the absence of adequate legal protections constitutes a form of legal violence that creates an underclass systematically denied justice.