The year 2015 was one of the bloodiest years in Afghanistan since 2001. As of today, the Taliban have infiltrated many provinces, including the capital. The Afghan Army is taking so many casualties that it can no longer recruit enough replacement troops. The government has all but ceded sections of the country to the insurgents.

Perhaps Judge Powell was doing his best under impossible conditions. Experts have urged the government to hire more judges and staff. The president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, Judge Dana Leigh Marks, said that judges are overwhelmed by the volume of cases. It’s as if death penalty cases are being handled in traffic court.

“How do you keep your heart open and remain compassionate?” she said. “I have over 3,000 pending cases. Federal District Court judges have 440, and two to three full-time lawyers. If we are lucky we have half a judicial law clerk.”

The day after Samey went on hunger strike, I emailed the Board of Immigration Appeals asking why his case had not been decided after eight months. The following day, the board announced that it would send his case back to Texas for a retrial. Would that have happened without a letter from a journalist? And what does it say about the system if a case as strong as Samey’s fails?

For one thing, it says that the system is stacked against the asylum seeker. The immigration judge works for the Department of Justice, and the government’s attorney works for the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the asylum seeker generally has no right to a public defender. Legal representation is crucial: One study found that mothers with children without a lawyer were granted asylum 2 percent of the time while those with a lawyer won 32 percent of the time.

In New York City, an immigration public defender system developed in conjunction with Cardozo Law School and funded by the New York City Council attempts to address this problem by providing legal assistance to detainees through the Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services and the Legal Aid Society. Immigrant Justice Corps, a nonprofit legal aid group, is sending fellows to Texas to assist asylum seekers.

Today, Samey is back in detention in Port Isabel, Tex., awaiting retrial and unable to afford a lawyer. International law holds that asylum seekers should be detained only in unusual circumstances. Yet our detention centers are filling up with people like Samey.