New York; Annandale, Virginia; Los Angeles; Atlanta —

Mispelys Salazar clutches a stack of papers close to her chest as bristling wind gusts threaten to send them flying into the air. She nervously shuffles forward in line as she waits to enter 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan for her first immigration court appearance.

Her future will be decided in a courtroom inside the nation’s tallest federal building: She could be allowed to stay in the country she’s lived in for the past two years. The alternative outcome — one that’s just as common across US immigration courts — is she will be ordered deported.

The Panamanian woman, in line with her partner and two children, learns of a third possible outcome when a volunteer with an immigrant advocacy organization hands her a flyer that

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