By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 7/23/2026
Category: Courts / Immigration / Due Process / Civil Rights
NEW YORK CITY, NY – New York City’s immigration courts issued 4,447 removal orders in June to people who did not appear for their hearings, more than double the 2,189 recorded in May, according to a new analysis of federal immigration court data.
The surge coincided with a rapid expansion of mass preliminary hearings sometimes called “mega master” calendars. These proceedings can place 100 or more cases before one immigration judge in a morning, compressing what is normally a smaller docket into a crowded, high-stakes session.
Gothamist reported that New York immigration courts held 39 such morning hearings between January 2025 and June 2026, including 26 in June alone. At 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, recent calendars have produced long hallway lines, crowded waiting areas and courtrooms packed with people summoned at the same time.
A master calendar hearing is a preliminary proceeding where a judge explains rights, asks about legal representation and schedules later steps. Missing even one hearing can lead to an in-absentia removal order, which directs deportation without the person present.
Lawyers and advocates told Gothamist that some people receive only days of notice, and some learn about a changed date only by checking the federal court system themselves. They argue that the accelerated calendars undermine due process. Those are allegations from practitioners, not a court finding that every mass hearing is unlawful.
The underlying analysis was conducted by bklg.org researchers using immigration court data through June. The researchers counted 53,808 in-absentia removal orders nationwide that month, a 55 percent increase from May’s 34,725. They also found that the median lead time for non-detained June master hearings was 42 days, down 73 percent from two months earlier.
There is no settled definition of a mega-master hearing. The researchers’ primary method identified days when one judge had at least 70 non-detained people scheduled and the median scheduling lead time was no more than 45 days. They also tested a stricter 100-person definition. That methodology matters because the label is descriptive, not an official court category.
Federal officials did not respond to Gothamist’s questions about the New York spike. Administration officials have defended mass scheduling more broadly as a way to reduce a yearslong immigration-court backlog.
Efficiency cannot be measured only by the number of cases closed. A system that moves faster while people miss hearings they did not know about can produce final orders without meaningful participation. Reopening an in-absentia case is possible in some circumstances, but it requires another legal fight and depends on the facts of the individual case.
The unanswered question is whether New York’s immigration courts are reducing delay or manufacturing default. With thousands of removal orders issued in a single month, the federal government owes the public clear data on notice delivery, rescheduled dates, representation rates and how many people were ordered removed without ever reaching the courtroom.
Sources
Gothamist: NYC immigration courts are ground-zero for a new deportation tool: Mass hearings
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