Justice Department expands immigrant court hearings with mass deportation risk
Justice Department accelerates mass deportations with 'mega masters' court hearings of 100+ immigrants at once, raising due process concerns.
Objective Facts
Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants' hearings and bunching them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders, with the new and unprecedented tactic shared with NPR by immigration attorneys and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings—or "mega masters"—that include 100 or more people at a time, up from two or three dozen people at a time typically before, with many immigrants appearing for the first time in court to try to make their case to stay in the U.S. Immigration attorneys worry that 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, and in some cases little to no notice is being issued by the government by mail or electronically. The practice had started in the Chicago, Boston and Chelmsford, Mass., courts and is soon to start in the Dallas Immigration Court, with the effort coming as President Trump seeks to deport a million people a year.
Left-Leaning Perspective
Immigration attorneys and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have flagged the "mega masters" practice as a due process concern. Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practicing policy counsel at AILA, told NPR that the major concern is that these hearings will consist of people without attorneys who won't have gotten proper notice, and stated that "it's almost like they are being designed to increase" how many people get deportation orders automatically. A Texas-based immigration attorney told NPR that "they're anticipating that the majority will not show up and they'll just be able to say that they completed X number of cases because they'll be in absentia orders of removal," speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals for their ability to practice in Texas courts. The attorneys stress that most people in immigration court do not have a lawyer and are unlikely to see benefits from accelerated case processing. The central argument is that the "mega masters" tactic prioritizes efficiency over fairness. The practice involves moving up court hearings for hundreds of immigrants and scheduling them for mass hearings where if they don't show up, they could be ordered deported. Immigration attorneys worry that if people do show up to the massive hearings, it could overwhelm court staff and judges and overcrowd courtrooms. The concern centers on immigrants without legal representation lacking notice of schedule changes and being unable to present their cases in crowded proceedings. Left-leaning coverage has not yet developed extensive critical commentary on this specific story angle as of the current reporting date, focusing instead on underlying patterns of due process concerns raised by immigration attorneys rather than broader partisan critique of the Trump administration's deportation goals.
Right-Leaning Perspective
The Trump administration has framed the immigration court expansion as a positive reform. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that "The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule to the law in our nation's immigration system." This language positions the hiring of judges and acceleration of cases as part of a broader effort to restore judicial authority and enforce existing laws. The administration's rationale emphasizes that President Trump seeks to deport a million people a year—much higher than the 600,000 people the administration deported in 2025—and Trump has complained about the backlogs of millions of cases inside immigration courts, pointing to courts as an obstacle to rapid deportation. The mega masters strategy comes as the DOJ announced its largest-ever class of new immigration judges, with 77 judges and five temporary military lawyers onboarded last week, and the agency has boasted hiring 153 immigration judges this fiscal year, the most in any year. From this perspective, the strategy represents necessary infrastructure investment to handle case backlogs more efficiently. Right-leaning commentary on this specific story angle has been limited to the administration's official position. The available evidence shows the administration views court acceleration as responding to legitimate backlog concerns rather than undermining due process. No significant conservative media responses to this specific "mega masters" tactic have been captured in current reporting.
Deep Dive
The "mega masters" practice emerged as a practical response to President Trump's stated goal of deporting a million people annually, compared to 600,000 in 2025. With millions of cases backed up in immigration courts, the administration faced a mathematical problem: current caseloads could not support rapid deportations without structural change. The mega masters strategy attempted to resolve this by bundling 100+ immigrants into single hearings, theoretically enabling judges to process more cases faster. However, the strategy reveals a fundamental tension in immigration enforcement: due process protections for individuals (notice, legal representation, individualized hearings) are inherently slower than streamlined mass proceedings. Immigration attorneys argue the mega masters tactic sacrifices the former for the latter. The central dispute is not whether court backlogs exist—both sides acknowledge they do—but whether mass hearings without adequate notice or legal representation violate constitutional guarantees. The Trump administration's framing of judge hiring as "restoring rule of law" assumes that increasing judicial capacity to issue removal orders constitutes lawful governance, while attorneys argue that processing cases without proper notice or representation undermines the rule of law. What the coverage reveals but what neither side explicitly addresses: the mega masters strategy may be structurally designed to exploit the absence of legal representation. Immigration attorneys cannot adequately prepare for or manage 100+ client cases simultaneously. Absent personal notice of rescheduling, many immigrants will miss hearings. Absent both notice and representation, immigrants default to removal orders. The question of whether this outcome is unintended consequence or strategic design remains the core disagreement, with the anonymity-seeking Texas attorney suggesting intent while the administration offers no response to this characterization.