The Executive Office of Immigration Review rolled out so-called “mega master” hearings Monday in New York City immigration court, where a single immigration judge reviewed more than a hundred deportation cases that day.
The new policy — which debuted recently in Illinois and Massachusetts — played out inside the courtroom of Immigration Judge Arya Ranasinghe, who was assigned 121 cases.
In the past, master calendar hearings have summoned two to three dozen people at a time early in their deportation proceedings. They typically have brief appearances to double check their addresses are correct and then receive instructions on next steps. Before Monday, more than a hundred cases in a day in New York City was virtually unheard of.
“I have such a voluminous docket today,” Ranasinghe said with a heavy sigh, telling the room it was her first “mega master as they call it.”
“It’s just some fun new adventure,” she said. “We do the best we can.”
Mega master hearings are the latest policy shift in a tumultuous year for immigration courts under President Donald Trump. His tenure has been marked by widespread layoffs of immigration judges seen as more favorable to immigrants, efforts to dismiss and close asylum cases or deport immigrants to countries other than their own and months of masked ICE agents stalking hallways to arrest people showing up for routine court appearances.
A federal judge last month stepped in to block most courthouse arrests after government attorneys walked back their initial justification for the policy.
Advocates see the mega masters as yet another effort by the Trump administration to rush people through the processes that might allow them to stay in this country legally.
“Instead of allowing them to go through the process and uphold their rights, they’re going to continue to try to undermine our community’s rights every single day,” said Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO New York Immigration Coalition.
Several dozen immigrants passed through Ranasinghe’s courtroom during the day, getting instructions on upcoming hearings or on submitting asylum claims. As the day wore on, judges, clerks and court staff joked about not being able to take breaks or saving their lunch break until the next day.
Federal immigration judges inside 290 Broadway have been hearing dozens of cases at once, June 1, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
But by the end of the day, dozens of immigrants hadn’t shown up.
Just after 5 p.m. Ranasinghe issued removal orders to the 39 people and their family members who hadn’t come to court after determining “proper notice was sent.”
While the court is supposed to send written notices of hearing date changes by mail, several people who came Monday said they hadn’t gotten such notices. They said they only learned their court date had been changed because they’d repeatedly checked an online portal.
“A lot of people didn’t know they had court,” an Ecuadorean woman named Mari, who declined to give her full name, said in Spanish as she waited in the hallway for her sister-in-law’s case to be completed. Both her daughter and her sister-in-law never got notice in the mail and only realized their cases had been changed to Monday by looking at an app, she said.
Mari said she was worried about all those who hadn’t shown up and would find out the next time they came to court, they’d been ordered removed from the country.
“When they come next, they’re going to be confronted with this reality,” she said in Spanish.
Asked about the mega master docket, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, which oversees EOIR, touted the Trump Administration’s efforts at decreasing the backlog of more than 3 million people in deportation proceedings.
“Reducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for this administration,” an unnamed spokesperson said in a written statement. “The Justice Department is restoring integrity to our immigration system by hearing cases fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly, in accordance with the law.”
An unnamed spokesperson for EOIR said in a statement the agency, “prioritizes the timely completion of all cases.”
Immigration attorneys usually receive automated alerts about changes in hearing dates, but many immigrants in deportation proceedings are representing themselves. Those who miss court dates can be hit with a removal order in absentia, a final order of removal. They may argue to reopen their case if they didn’t get proper notice of changes to the hearing date.
In recent days immigration attorneys and advocates have been sending out urgent warnings telling people in deportation proceedings to double check their court dates to make sure they hadn’t been suddenly rescheduled.
That’s how 26-year-old Eisha found out her case date had been changed. She declined to give her last name as she nursed her four-month-old baby, saying she regularly checked the online portal, just to be sure. The stakes are so high, she told The City Reporter in Spanish.
If you don’t show up, “You lose your case. You get a deportation order.”
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