--- title: "L.A.'s Overwhelmed Immigration Courts Are Issuing Deportation Orders in Absentia" description: "Crowds, confusion and compressed schedules at Los Angeles's immigration courts are leaving some migrants ordered deported without a hearing on their claims, attorneys say — the product of a federal push to move cases faster by packing dozens of people into a single session." category: "Los Angeles" category_url: https://herald.la/category/los-angeles author: "Camila Reyes" published: 2026-07-02T08:19:37.000Z updated: 2026-07-02T08:19:37.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/l-a-s-overwhelmed-immigration-courts-are-issuing-deportation-orders-in-absentia tags: ["immigration", "courts", "deportation", "due process", "Los Angeles"] --- # L.A.'s Overwhelmed Immigration Courts Are Issuing Deportation Orders in Absentia Crowds, confusion and compressed schedules at Los Angeles's immigration courts are leaving some migrants ordered deported without a hearing on their claims, attorneys say — the product of a federal push to move cases faster by packing dozens of people into a single session. At Los Angeles's immigration courts — spread across downtown, Van Nuys and West Los Angeles — attorneys describe overflowing waiting rooms, shifting hearing times and dockets so crowded that some migrants are ordered deported before they ever present their case. ## What is happening On a single day in late June, at least 14 people were ordered removed "in absentia" at the downtown court — that is, in their absence — [the Los Angeles Times reported](https://www.aol.com/news/chaos-long-lines-overwhelm-l-100000563.html). An in-absentia order is consequential: rather than a hearing where a person can raise an asylum claim or another defense, it ends the case against them without one, and it can bar many forms of relief for years. Immigration judges are required by law to enter a removal order in absentia when the government shows that a person received proper written notice of the hearing and is removable. The dispute in Los Angeles is over whether people are, in practice, getting that notice — and whether they can even find their hearing in the crush. ## The 'mega master' hearings Attorneys and NPR trace much of the strain to what are being called "mega master" calendar hearings. Where a first appearance once involved 10 to 15 people, judges are now summoning dozens — in some accounts 60 to 100 or more — into a single session, [NPR reported](https://www.npr.org/2026/05/26/nx-s1-5830474/trump-immigration-courts-mega-masters). Some lawyers say cases once set for 2027 or 2028 have been moved up with only weeks' notice. The acceleration reflects the Trump administration's stated goal of sharply increasing deportations; officials have spoken of aiming to remove roughly one million people a year, [NBC News reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/heated-clash-dhs-master-plan-deportations-rcna342905). "What we're experiencing in court is, in a sense, worse than what we saw on the streets, but it happens in secret," the immigration attorney Vera Weisz told the Los Angeles Times. ## Two views The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the courts, and administration officials frame the faster scheduling as a necessary response to a national backlog that runs into the millions of cases — one that would otherwise leave people waiting years for a decision. Immigration attorneys and legal-aid groups counter that speed cannot come at the expense of due process, particularly for the large share of people who appear without a lawyer and may not understand a changed date or a name called across a packed room. "If people don't know when they're supposed to appear, and they get deported because of that, that is not justice," Andrew Ji of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California said, according to the Times. ## The stakes A person ordered removed in absentia can try to reopen the case, but generally must show either that they never received proper notice or that exceptional circumstances kept them away — a high bar, and a harder one for those without counsel. Lindsay Toczylowski of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center told the Times that for many, deportation will come first, with any chance of return hinging on proving they were never properly notified. As the dockets keep moving, that is the balance now being struck in Los Angeles's immigration courtrooms — between clearing a vast backlog and ensuring people get their day in court. ## Sources - [Chaos, long lines overwhelm L.A.'s immigration courts, leading to default deportation orders](https://www.aol.com/news/chaos-long-lines-overwhelm-l-100000563.html) - [Immigration courts use 'mega masters' to speed deportations](https://www.npr.org/2026/05/26/nx-s1-5830474/trump-immigration-courts-mega-masters) - [Inside the clash over the DHS plan for deportations](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/heated-clash-dhs-master-plan-deportations-rcna342905)