As Sacramento Immigration Judge Susan Phan heard the identification numbers of people scheduled to appear before her Thursday morning, the number of absences quickly became apparent.
“A lot of people are not here,” Phan said aloud a courtroom inside the John Moss federal building in downtown.
The absences are becoming increasingly more common across the country as immigration courts have begun expanding the number of people scheduled for preliminary proceeding, and moving up hearing dates. The hearings, nicknamed “mega master,” can place more than 100 cases on a judge’s docket in a single day.
The federal government has argued the strategy is intended to move cases through the immigration system more quickly and reduce court backlogs. But immigration lawyers and advocates say the practice reduces opportunities for individualized review and increases the likelihood that immigrants will miss hearings, often leading to more deportation orders.
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Master calendar hearings, which have existed for decades, are generally the first time a person appears in front of an immigration judge to make their case. They typically last only a few minutes and focus on procedural issues.
Hearings have previously involved about two or three dozen cases, according to NorCal Resist, a community activist group which has tracked immigration enforcement in the region.
Those numbers have increased dramatically in recent weeks. Pham had 96 cases scheduled for Thursday. One week earlier, she had 111 cases in a single day.
NorCal Resist estimates that on average half of the people on scheduled court dockets have not shown up since the implementation of the “mega master” hearings in Sacramento immigration court earlier this month. The absences can be attributed to several factors, including address changes, fear and moved up court dates, said programs director Giselle Garcia.
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Missing a hearing has severe consequences: In nearly all cases, a judge will issue a removal order. Even before this new practice, removal orders have skyrocketed in recent years.
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The post Sacramento Immigration Courts Now Have More Than 100 Cases a Day. That Likely Means More Deportations appeared first on American Renaissance.
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