In an immigration court that nearly always says no, a lawyer’s spirit is broken

Elizabeth Matherne had been practicing immigration law for four years in the far northern suburbs of this city when a new group of people came pleading for help. A flood of Central American newcomers fleeing violence in their home countries were resettling in Atlanta, applying for asylum and jamming the six phone lines at her office. She’d never seen such demand for her services.

But Matherne only felt rattled. Atlanta was fast becoming America’s toughest immigration court, she told the callers, a place where asylum applicants had “lotto number” odds....