This gave Cowan an idea. If the INS was overloaded with applications, the agency couldn’t immediately rule on each case; she could buy her clients time and avert deportations by filing as many as possible, and appealing them to a body called the Board of Immigration Appeals. “The government won’t decide if we win or lose” in individual cases, she said. “We’ll define success for ourselves. We’ll get our clients out of custody” and into the orbit of friends and family members. She called it “moving people off the border.”
