Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants’ hearings and bunching them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders. Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings — or “mega masters” — that include 100 or more people at a time. If you represent individuals in removal proceedings, you need to understand this shift and how it affects your practice strategy.
What changed
Mega master hearings involve rescheduling large numbers of immigration court cases from hearings months into the future to dates in just a matter of days or weeks. The numbers have grown from two or three dozen people at a time, which had been typical before for a first hearing. Although the practice is not new, it became much more frequent starting in mid-May. More than 1,300 such hearings were held in June alone, a nearly threefold jump from the previous June.
These proceedings are framed as master calendar hearings—administrative check-ins rather than merit hearings—but the volume has transformed their practical effect. A single judge could have more than 100 cases on a given morning or afternoon during a mega master docket. In the courthouses, judges are spending an average of five minutes or less on cases and still not working through all the cases of people who showed up.
Why it matters
Attorneys around the country have said that many people do not get notice of the hearing date changes in time, and judges then order deported most, if not all, of the people who don’t show up for court. Some of the clients aren’t even receiving notice of the hearings by mail — a federal requirement — with the only way to know for sure that a hearing is scheduled being to constantly check a government website.
During one week at the end of May, about 40% of the people scheduled for mega master hearings did not show up, and on two occasions, a judge ordered every person scheduled for a mega master hearing deported because they did not appear for their hearing. The American Immigration Lawyers Association says the changes could further limit due process protections in an already overwhelmed immigration court system.
For practitioners, this means you cannot rely on standard notice timelines. Immigrants, especially those without a lawyer, may not know that their hearing dates had been rescheduled for a sooner date, leaving them vulnerable to deportation, with little to no notice being issued by the government by mail or electronically.
Way forward
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Monitor dockets obsessively. Do not depend on mail notice. Check the immigration court’s online case management system multiple times per week for your clients’ cases to catch rescheduled dates.
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Counsel clients on in absentia risk. Explain to clients the catastrophic consequences of missing a hearing and ensure they have a reliable way to reach you if they receive unexpected communications from the court.
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Document notice failures. If a client reports that they received no proper notice before a mega master hearing, preserve all evidence of that failure. This may be grounds for reopening an in absentia removal order.
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Coordinate with immigrant advocacy groups. Organizations tracking mega master docket data and client outcomes may help you identify patterns at your local court and build a record for potential systemic challenges.
Disclaimer
This article is published by a software company, not a law firm, and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult a licensed immigration attorney about your specific situation and verify all information against the primary source linked above. Immigration policy and court procedures can change without notice, and local courts may have different practices. Always confirm current procedures with the Executive Office for Immigration Review and your local immigration court.