FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 1, 2026
CONTACTS:
Lilly Gonzalez, media@nipnlg.org
WASHINGTON, D.C.—National Immigration Project Director of Advocacy Caitlin Bellis issued the following statement on the Trump administration’s recent use of mass “mega master” calendar hearings in immigration court:
Across the country, immigration courts are now beginning to schedule so-called “mega master” hearings, cramming 100 or more people into a single session, most of them without lawyers, and many without real notice that their hearing date had been moved up by years. What the administration is calling a court proceeding is actually a mechanism for generating deportation orders in bulk.
The math here is not subtle. This administration has publicly stated its goal of deporting one million people this year, and Trump has said that courts are an obstacle to rapid deportation. In some cases, a brand new immigration hearing is scheduled out of the blue, and in others, hearings that were scheduled for 2027, 2028, or 2029 are being pulled forward with little or no notice. When someone doesn’t show up—because they never knew the date changed, because they couldn’t get off work or had to care for a child, because they don’t speak English and couldn’t navigate a government portal—a judge issues a removal order on the spot.
Meanwhile, some unrepresented people who do manage to attend are being handed “pleading declaration” forms in rooms packed with strangers and under time pressure. These forms can potentially fundamentally alter or accelerate someone’s removal proceeding. With no one to explain what they’re signing, they’re being set up to lose.
These “mega master” hearings didn’t come out of nowhere. This administration has spent months defunding immigration legal services, stacking immigration courts with judges willing to facilitate its enforcement agenda, and locking people up while stripping away the opportunity to fight their detention. “Mega master” hearings are just the latest attempt to circumvent due process.
The National Immigration Project condemns these hearings in the strongest terms. We call on immigration judges to reject the use of mass pleadings and en masse proceedings that make individual case assessment impossible. We call on Congress to exercise meaningful oversight of an executive branch that has treated the Constitution as a nuisance rather than a safeguard. And we urge anyone who has received a notice of a rescheduled immigration hearing to seek legal assistance immediately. Your rights have not disappeared, even if this administration is doing everything it can to make you believe otherwise.
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The National Immigration Project is a membership organization of attorneys, advocates, and community members who believe that all people should be treated with dignity, live freely, and flourish. We litigate, advocate, educate, and build bridges across movements to ensure that those most impacted by the immigration and criminal systems are uplifted and supported. Learn more at nipnlg.org. Follow the National Immigration Project on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads at @NIPNLG.