UNITED STATES – At the end of May, the Trump regime instituted a new policy in its campaign to remove massive numbers of immigrants from the U.S. Under the new “mega-master hearings” directive, immigrants are ordered to appear in court on short notice without representation, and immigration judges can order dozens of immigrants deported at once, accelerating the Trump regime’s campaign of mass deportations.
Before May, immigration hearings averaged 30 people at a time; under the new mega-master hearings, immigration judges can handle more than 100 cases in a single day. At a usual “Master Calendar Hearing”, immigrants are informed of their rights and responsibilities, future hearings and deadlines are scheduled, and it is determined whether an interpreter is needed. At the new mega-master hearings, immigrants are often coerced into stating that they can be legally deported. Some judges have distributed “Pleading Declarations” at mega-master hearings, which can accelerate the deportation of people who complete the forms without understanding what they are signing.
The mega-master hearings are a tool to increase the rate of deportations. If immigrants are even notified of the change in their court date, they may receive only days of notice, discouraging court appearances and restricting the time available to find legal representation. Additionally, those ordered to appear at these hearings are often not given access to an interpreter in their language. Bringing over a hundred people into courtrooms not designed to accommodate them allows legal observers to be denied access, letting such violations go unchecked.
Already, access to immigration law services is restricted by cost. Since immigration is considered a matter of civil law rather than criminal law, immigrants are denied the right to have a lawyer provided to them. Even for those who can access representation, immigration lawyers are overworked with cases due to the sudden acceleration in hearings.
Last year, ICE began exploiting the immigration court process by detaining people attempting to appear for their hearings. As ICE continues its campaign of mass terror across the country, many immigrants fear that court hearings are a trap set to detain them. Even for those who can appear, circumstances like overwhelmed courthouse parking and security checkpoints can prevent them from making it inside. By adding confusion and chaos to the immigration process, the Trump regime has increased the number of immigrants deported under in absentia orders, issued by immigration judges when an individual fails to appear for their court hearing. In absentia removal orders have increased from a low of about 700 per month in 2021 to nearly 26,000 per month in 2025. In 2026 so far, the rate has increased to over 30,000 per month. In June, after the new policy was implemented, the number of people failing to attend their hearings doubled.
Unlike other federal courts, immigration judges are employees of the U.S. Department of Justice, meaning they can be fired at will, and their procedures can be changed by the DOJ. The Trump regime, through Attorney General Todd Blanche, formerly a personal lawyer for Trump, has used these features as opportunities to advance its agenda of mass deportations.
Immigrant advocacy groups have advised immigrants to frequently check the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s website for updates on their cases, to avoid the possibility of being deported in absentia. Only the construction of revolutionary mass organizations, such as neighborhood defense units, and the collective capacity to resist can defend the most oppressed sectors of the U.S. from Trump’s fascistic agenda.
