A master hearing is a session in which an immigration judge hears multiple cases. Among other functions, an expulsion may be ordered or (rarely) voluntary departure granted. Then the individual (called a ‘respondent’) is given a date for an “individual or merits” hearing in which there is one respondent and the merits of the case are presented. Each respondent in a master hearing usually gets 3–5 minutes. An individual hearing can take up to 20 minutes.

This process is too slow to meet the current régime’s expulsion quotas. This has led to massive sessions, which are being called ‘mega master’ hearings. These sessions include 100 or more people with no additional time for the judge to hear respondents. These new hearings largely target people without lawyers representing them. Those who show up late to the session, or not at all, because they got a notice in a language they don’t speak, are receiving removal orders without any opportunity to present their side of the situation.

The people called into these ‘mega master’ sessions are often people who are working through the system and expected to have court dates in the future — sometimes as far out as 2028. They have no warning that their case is being accelerated and no opportunity to get ready.

Immigrants are already denied most due process rights by the current racist system. “Mega masters” will only make that worse. People without lawyers may not realize what options they have, may waive appeals they could make, or may sign papers that condemn themselves without realizing the risks. All in the name of meeting some arbitrary and unjustified quota of harm to our neighbors.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)