Trump immigration hearings are being moved onto faster mass dockets in New York City, and the change is coinciding with a sharp rise in removal orders against people who did not appear in court, according to reporting by Gwynne Hogan for The City Reporter.
The hearings, called “mega masters,” began picking up in New York City in early June, The City Reporter reported. Under that setup, one immigration judge can be assigned more than 100 cases in a day, roughly twice the size of a regular master calendar docket before the change, according to the report.
The scheduling change is doing more than crowding courtrooms. The City Reporter found that many hearings were set only weeks ahead and replaced dates that had previously been scheduled months or years later. In one observed mega master hearing with 121 cases on the docket, 39 people and their family members were ordered removed after failing to appear.
What are mega master immigration hearings?
A master calendar hearing is an early procedural hearing in immigration court, where a judge handles scheduling and basic case issues rather than taking full evidence. A “mega master” is the bulk version: a much larger docket assigned to a single judge, with scores of cases moving through the system on the same day.
For people in removal proceedings, the mechanism is blunt. If the government changes a hearing date and a person misses it, an immigration judge can issue an “in absentia” removal order, meaning the case is decided without the person in the courtroom.
The City Reporter said hearing dates had long been generally scheduled about 180 days after an initial hearing. That lead time fell to an average of 98 days in May and 42 days in June, according to the report.
Notice is required when a hearing date changes, but The City Reporter reported that the notification arrives by mail. Several people at court told the outlet they had been scheduled for dates months or years away, then learned after checking the online system that a new hearing was only days away.
The volume of missed-hearing orders rose quickly. In New York City, immigration judges ordered 4,447 people removed in absentia in June, more than double the 2,189 such orders in May, according to The City Reporter’s analysis. Nationally, the outlet reported 53,808 in absentia removal orders in June, up 55% from the previous month.
The practical burden lands on people who still make it to court. The City Reporter observed a Friday morning hearing at 26 Federal Plaza where Immigration Judge Thanos Kanellakos appeared by video from Maryland and oversaw a docket of 90 cases. The outlet reported that many attendees had traveled from Tennessee, Georgia, North Dakota and Illinois.
The Trump administration has paired immigration court changes with an aggressive deportation push. The reporting does not show that every missed hearing resulted from bad notice or a moved date, but it does show a court system being compressed in a way that makes checking dates, receiving mailed notices and traveling on short notice much more consequential.
This story draws on original reporting from Techdirt.
