Fifty people were ordered removed from the United States Friday after missing a mass immigration court hearing in San Diego, court observers said.
The 50 were among more than 80 cases scheduled that morning before Judge Catherine Halliday-Roberts.
About two dozen people made it to court and had their cases heard in the morning. Halliday-Roberts waited until the afternoon to decide the cases of those who were absent.
The deportation orders were first reported by Daylight San Diego.
The hearing was the latest in a new nationwide effort by the U.S. Department of Justice to significantly increase deportations by fast-tracking hearings, said Paulina Reyes, the San Diego director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
"We believe ... this is the Trump administration's latest plan to move forward with mass deportations without due process," Reyes said.
Ken Nollett has been attending immigration court in San Diego for months as a volunteer observer. He said he's never seen so many people scheduled for court at once.
"In a super busy morning, one judge might have 20 cases," Nollett said. "This morning in courtroom six, it was about 90 cases."
A Justice Department official said in an emailed statement the hearings are part of an effort to reduce its backlog.
"Reducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for this administration," the statement said. "The Justice department is restoring integrity to our immigration system by hearing cases fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly, in accordance with the law."
Nollett said people are having their court dates rescheduled on short notice. It's concerning, he said, because missing court can be grounds for deportation.
"It looks like they're taking people who had hearings ... a year from now or two years from now and they've just changed the date," Nollett said.
Reyes said the same thing is happening in immigration courts across the country.
"That's what we've been hearing from our partners in other states," she said. "They're seeing that people might have been scheduled for hearings in ... late 2026, maybe in 2027, and all of a sudden received notice that they have a hearing ... within a month's notice."
The Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review said in an emailed statement that they're adjusting court schedules "to ensure cases do not languish."
"As it continues to add new immigration judges, EOIR will continue to make scheduling adjustments to ensure all cases are handled in a timely and lawful manner," the spokesperson said.
Reyes said the court is setting people up to fail.
"I think that this new policy and practice is designed to get more in absentia orders," she said. "To get more people removed without due process."
Master hearings, like the ones held Friday in San Diego, usually come early in the immigration court process.
Once an immigrant is accused by the government of being in the country illegally, they're notified and appear at a master hearing, Reyes said.
During the hearing the immigration judge will explain their rights, the nature of their alleged violation and give them the opportunity to seek an attorney.
A master calendar hearing might also be held for someone who has already been through one or more hearings. They can plead their case to the immigration judge or, like one person did in San Diego Friday, elect to self-deport.
Not everyone absent was ordered removed, according to the Daylight San Diego report. A couple were dismissed, one was transferred to another state and more than a dozen were rescheduled until next month.
