Los Ángeles/Austin (USA) (EFE).- Immigration courts in the United States have begun implementing ‘mega hearings,’ where more than one hundred immigrants are summoned simultaneously to answer for their cases, an unprecedented tactic that, according to experts who spoke to EFE, seeks to increase the number of deportations.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is one of the groups that has issued a warning regarding the new strategy of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to deal with the backlog of immigration courts, which as of March had 3.5 million pending cases.
Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, AILA Practice and Policy advisor, explained to EFE that generally 20-30 people are summoned to court. But the introduction of “mega-dockets” has led certain courts to schedule more than a hundred immigrants to appear at once.
Among the immigration courts that have already begun these hearings are those in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, or Boston.
Exposed to deportation
Dojaquez-Torres expresses “serious concerns” about these ‘mega hearings,’ as they could be “overlooking” due process guarantees.
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Specifically, the lawyer points out that these mass hearings are being scheduled so quickly that immigrants might not receive the notification and fail to attend, which would automatically expose them to a deportation “in absentia.”
Those who keep the appointment would still be at risk of not being given a fair chance: “Some immigration judges are conducting these hearings ‘classroom-style,’ addressing 30 or 40 people at a time and asking them to raise their hands to confirm their ‘understanding,’” maintains Dojaquez-Torres.
This strategy would affect even more those immigrants who lack legal representation. Furthermore, it increases the possibility that many people will not receive an adequate interpreter and will not have the opportunity to present their case correctly.
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“Immigration laws and judicial processes are already very complex; in this context, people may feel even more intimidated—or simply unaware of their rights—during these hearings in which the «process» seems designed to handle everyone’s cases at once,” says Dojaquez-Torres.
Added to this is the fact that most immigration courts are not designed to host hearings of such magnitude.
The mass deportation campaign
U.S. immigration courts are under the Executive branch rather than the judicial system, which has allowed the administration of President Donald Trump to dismiss more than one hundred judges, removing those who did not align with mass deportation policies and replacing them with individuals willing to carry out their objectives.
In parallel, the Government eliminated the requirements to access the position of immigration judge, which allows lawyers without experience in immigration law or in the public sector to occupy these positions.
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Priscilla Olivarez, an attorney and advisor for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, stated that the decision to hold mass hearings, combined with the firing of judges, proves that the Administration’s “true goal” is to prevent people from being able to defend their cases.
The ‘mega hearings’ also take place after the Trump administration deported about 442,000 people in 2025 (some organizations cite more than 600,000), a figure below the goal of one million expulsions per year that the Republican set for himself upon returning to power.
Hearings underway in Texas
Olivarez pointed out that in Texas these mass hearings have already begun to be implemented. In Laredo, one was scheduled with more than 70 people, and in San Antonio this Tuesday, one hundred immigrants are expected to be summoned in a single day: 50 in the morning and another 50 in the afternoon.
The concern is that these massive audiences will generate long lines to enter the courtroom or the building and that the “deportation of individuals will be ordered” without them having had time to appear.
The expert also expressed concern that, along with these hearings, the Government might send agents to wait outside the courts to immediately arrest migrants, a controversial practice that was applied for months in San Antonio and other cities, but which had been suspended.
