California immigration advocates and experts are raising concerns about a new federal immigration court initiative designed to expedite deportation order cases.
Courts across the country started rolling out “mega masters” that bring unusually large numbers of immigrants into court proceedings at the same time. Immigrant attorneys argue the practice could make it more difficult for people to understand their rights, find legal representation and adequately prepare their cases.
A recent hearing inside Sacramento’s John Moss Federal Building had scheduled 45 immigrants to appear. Another 45 were scheduled an hour later.
Among them was Mexican immigrant Jose, whose full name we’re withholding for his protection. He represented himself and his two daughters during the hearing.
He said he came to the United States with his family in 2024 after being attacked in Sinaloa.
“They attacked me, and I’m here more for my daughters,” he said in Spanish. “They attacked me in front of them, and I don’t want anything to happen to them.”
The family currently lives in Sacramento where he said his daughters are learning English and barely adjusting to life in a new country.
Jose said he was surprised to learn he only had two months to find an attorney and gather documents before his next hearing, noting that he knows others whose cases were scheduled years into the future.
“I know someone who was told to come back in two years,” he added. “They’re asking me to come back in two months.”
Finding legal representation won’t be easy because larger proceedings means more immigrants competing for the already fully booked affordable immigration attorneys.
Greg Chen with the American Immigration Lawyers Association said as many as 100 people are being called into court rooms that typically handle around 20 cases at a time.
Giselle Garcia with NorCal Resist, a Sacramento-based mutual aid organization that assists immigrants facing deportation proceedings, said a typical docket included between 15 and 25 respondents.
“Today we had 45 leads scheduled,” Garcia said. “There’s two back-to-back, so that’s 90 leads that were scheduled for this morning.”
Garcia said she’s also worried that many immigrants on these new dockets had their court dates moved up by months or even years. At the hearing CapRadio attended, 15 respondents failed to appear during the first session. Garcia said another 20 missed the second.
“Those individuals will likely be receiving removal orders because they did not attend,” she stressed. “But we don’t know how many of those respondents didn’t come because of fear or because they didn’t receive the appropriate notice.”
Garcia also fears the shorter timelines between hearings could discourage immigrants from returning to court.
“When they’re being told, ‘You got two months, good luck,’ we anticipate that fewer people will show up,” she said.
Jose said he’s determined to find a lawyer before his August hearing, but he’s not sure what he’ll do if his asylum claim is denied.
“All we can do is cry,” he said in Spanish. “They have our address. They have everything. We can’t hide.”
The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the nation’s immigration courts, said in a statement that immigration judges can issue deportation orders when respondents fail to appear if they determine sufficient notice was provided and the Department of Homeland Security has established removability.
The spokesperson added that the agency will continue to make scheduling adjustments to ensure all cases are handled in a timely and lawful manner.
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