Trump Speeds Up Deportations With “Mega Hearings” That Summon More Than 100 Migrants at Once

• Trump Speeds Up Deportations
• Mass Court Appointments
• Due Process Failures Raise Alarm

U.S. immigration courts have begun holding mass hearings with more than 100 people summoned at the same time to address their immigration cases.

The measure, already applied in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Boston, breaks with the usual practice of calling between 20 and 30 people per day.

In addition, the American Immigration Lawyers Association warned that the measure seeks to reduce the backlog of 3.5 million pending cases in immigration courts.

Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, an adviser with AILA, said the new “mega calendars” have generated massive hearings with no recent precedent in immigration courts.

Lawyers Warn About Due Process Risks

The accelerated implementation of these mass immigration hearings has raised concern among legal organizations that believe the format could affect basic defense guarantees.

Dojaquez-Torres expressed “serious concerns” because, she said, these sessions could be “bypassing” due process by being scheduled so quickly that some immigrants may not even receive proper notice.

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The consequence of not attending, even because of lack of notice, would be an automatic deportation order “in absentia,” leaving those affected with limited options to reverse the decision.

The attorney also denounced that some judges hold group hearings and request collective responses, a practice that could reduce the individual evaluation of each case.

Migrants Without Lawyers Are the Most Exposed

The collective format especially affects those who do not have legal representation, a large group within the U.S. immigration system.

In mass immigration hearings with dozens of people, the possibility increases that there will not be enough interpreters or that migrants will not have a real opportunity to explain their particular situation before the judge.

“Immigration laws and judicial processes are already very complex,” Dojaquez-Torres warned, adding that these proceedings can intimidate people and make it harder for them to know or exercise their rights.

In addition, many immigration courts lack the capacity to handle more than one hundred people at the same time, which could cause delays and logistical problems.

Part of the Mass Deportation Strategy

Immigration courts depend on the federal executive branch and not on the judiciary, which has allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to make significant internal changes.

More than 100 judges were dismissed and, at the same time, requirements to access the position were eliminated, allowing lawyers without immigration law experience to assume judicial duties.

Priscilla Olivarez of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center said the mass immigration hearings and dismissals seek to make it harder for migrants to properly defend their cases, EFE reported.

The “mega hearings” come after a year with hundreds of thousands of deportations, a figure below the target set by Trump, which has led the government to implement new measures to speed up removals, according to SWI.