Full Breakdown
Accelerated Hearings and Rising Deportations
8/1/2026, 2:09:34 PM
System Changes Under the Trump Administration
The practice of assigning dozens, sometimes hundreds, of cases to individual judges is not new, but its frequency spiked after the administration took office in January 2025. Judges such as Immigration Judge Delia Gonzalez in Harlingen, Texas, have been scheduled for 90 cases in a single day, while Judge Brock Taylor in West Valley City, Utah, handled 159 cases before noon. Advocates for stricter immigration policy describe the approach as a “time-saver” that speeds up final orders.
Data Showing Increased No-Shows and Removal Orders
- The national no-show rate doubled to 40 % by June, according to Mobile Pathways.
- Deportation orders rose from 33,000 in January 2025 to roughly 79,000 in June.
- Cases deemed “abandoned” are now nearly five times the historical average since 2009; in New York and Chicago the multiplier is about six.
- Pending cases before the Executive Office of Immigration Review fell from 3.7 million to 3.5 million in fiscal year 2025, marking the first decline in a decade.
Official Statements & Responses
The office added that court delays harm immigrants with valid claims and that the public interest is served when the government deports individuals who lack legal grounds to remain.
Verbatim Quotes
- “The combination of collapsed lead times and packed hearing blocks is a schedule designed for people not to have their case heard,” — Bartlomiej Skorupa, chief operating officer of Mobile Pathways
- “There’s no credibility in the system that never reaches an end,” — Andrew Arthur
- “You don’t want to put so many cases on that the judges get burned out or that there’s a danger of denying due process to anybody,” — Andrew Arthur
- “The court ordered them removed despite the fact that they were not absent,” — Alex McGriff, an attorney for the National Immigrant Justice Center
- “It really is economizing the judge’s time,” — Andrew Arthur
- “It can be a tough job when you’re doing it at scale,” — Andrew Arthur
