Immigration courts across the country are increasingly scheduling dozens—and sometimes more than 150—cases before a single judge in one day, as the Trump administration attempts to reduce a backlog still numbering in the millions.

At the immigration court in Harlingen, Texas, “mega master hearing” days can leave immigrants, relatives and attorneys waiting for more than an hour outside the crowded entrance in the heat. Detained children also arrive accompanied by shelter case managers and legal advocates.

Court officials generally call it a “mega” day when a judge has more than 50 cases scheduled. The practice is not new, but its use increased sharply beginning in mid-May.

On one recent day, Immigration Judge Delia Gonzalez was assigned approximately 90 cases. More than 20 people failed to appear, but Gonzalez still ran out of time and rescheduled several immigrants who had already waited more than eight hours.

“There’s a real limit to how many cases a judge can hear with any care in one morning,” former immigration judge Elizabeth Young said. “When you cram that many hearings into a single docket, you’re working through a list, not holding court.”

Most of the cases before Gonzalez lasted less than five minutes.

Several immigrants requested additional time to prepare their cases. Some presented evidence that they had been defrauded by unscrupulous attorneys previously exposed in local news reports. Others had no lawyer and said they needed help understanding the court’s evidence-filing procedures.

One Colombian asylum-seeker had already submitted more than 1,500 pages of evidence but wanted additional time to obtain documents from military officials, businesses and politicians in his home country.

Gonzalez denied the requests.

Missing a Hearing Can Mean Immediate Deportation

That same day in West Valley City, Utah, Immigration Judge Brock Taylor had 159 cases on his docket.

By noon, Taylor had called the names of approximately a dozen immigrants from Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela who had failed to appear. After stating that each had been properly notified, he ordered them removed from the United States without the right to appeal.

In Chicago, immigration attorney Peter Meinecke said one of his clients received a deportation order after missing a mega hearing in Seattle. According to Meinecke, the man had fractured both legs in a vehicle accident and was confined to a wheelchair.

Mobile Pathways, a nonprofit organization that analyzes immigration court data, reported that approximately 20% of immigrants missed their hearings when President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025. By June, as the amount of notice provided before hearings reportedly decreased, the no-show rate had doubled to 40%.

Deportation orders rose at the same time.

Nearly 33,000 removal orders were issued in January 2025. By June, that monthly figure had climbed to approximately 79,000, according to Mobile Pathways.

Once a deportation order is entered, an immigrant’s asylum application is almost always treated as abandoned. Nationally, the rate of abandoned cases is now nearly five times the historical average dating to 2009. In New York and Chicago, it is approximately six times higher.

“That’s a recipe for disaster, because more people are going to be ordered removed in absentia who truly have a valid case,” said Katie Fleming, a director at the Acacia Center for Justice.

Alex McGriff, an attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center, said some people have even received deportation orders while physically inside the Chicago immigration courthouse because they became confused about where to report or obtain assistance.

“The court ordered them removed despite the fact that they were not absent,” McGriff said.

Supporters Say Faster Dockets Are Working

Advocates of stricter immigration enforcement argue that the accelerated hearings save judges’ time and produce more final decisions.

“It really is economizing the judge’s time,” said Arthur, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. “It is increasing the number of final orders that are going out, so that’s decreasing the backlog entirely.”

The immigration court backlog grew substantially during the Biden administration but has now declined for the first time in at least a decade.

Pending cases before the Executive Office for Immigration Review fell from approximately 3.7 million to 3.5 million during fiscal year 2025 and have continued declining this year.

“It can be a tough job when you’re doing it at scale,” Arthur said.

Immigration attorneys say they are struggling with that scale as well.

Jaime Diez, a veteran immigration lawyer based in Brownsville, Texas, recently had nearly 20 cases called in a single day—almost 10 times what he previously considered normal.

Standing outside a courtroom with a six-inch-thick case file for one client, Diez said the pace makes it nearly impossible to give complicated cases adequate attention.

“Due process is being thrown out of the window,” he said. “It’s very worrisome. I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”

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