Immigration courts are using a new tactic to speed up deportations

Immigration courts within the Justice Department are accelerating hearings by grouping many immigrants into large “mega master” sessions. These master calendar hearings can include 100 or more people at once, compared with the smaller groups that were typical for initial hearings. Many immigrants scheduled for these first appearances lack legal representation. Attorneys report that late or missed appearances can result in removal orders, further limiting due process. The practice has been reported in courts including Chicago, Boston, and Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and is expected to expand to Dallas. The approach aligns with broader efforts to increase deportations while immigration court backlogs remain a stated obstacle to rapid removals.

"Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants' hearings and bunch them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders. The new and unprecedented tactic was shared with NPR by immigration attorneys and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a trade association that tracks trends in these courts. Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings or "mega masters" that include 100 or more people at a time."

"That's up from two or three dozen people at a time that had been typical before for a first hearing. For many immigrants, this is their first appearance in court to try to make their case to be able to stay in the U.S. Attorneys say these new hearings largely target people without lawyers representing them. Those who show up late, or not at all, are receiving removal orders, further truncating the already-limited due process available to immigrants."

""The major concern is that [since] this is going to be a group of people without attorneys, that they're not going to have gotten proper notice," said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practicing policy counsel at AILA, adding that courts often lack enough seats for hearings with so many people at once. "So it's almost like they are being designed to increase" how many people get deportation orders automatically, she said."

"Lawyers said the practice had started in the Chicago, Boston and Chelmsford, Mass., courts and is soon to start in the Dallas Immigration Court. The effort comes as President Trump seeks to deport a million people a year much higher than the 600,000 people the administration deported in 2025. Trump has also complained about the backlogs of millions of cases inside immigration courts, pointing to courts as an obstacle to rapid deportation."

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