Sacramento's Immigration Courts Are Moving Fast—Too Fast, Advocates Say

Imagine walking into a federal courthouse expecting a routine hearing, only to discover you’re one of 90 people scheduled before noon. That’s the reality unfolding inside Sacramento’s John Moss Federal Building, where a new federal immigration court initiative is creating what advocates call an impossible situation for immigrants already struggling to navigate a complex system.

The rollout of so-called“mega masters”across the country is designed to speed up deportation cases. But in practice, immigration attorneys and local advocates say it’s becoming a assembly line that leaves vulnerable people scrambling for legal help they can’t afford and timelines they can’t meet. At a recent Sacramento hearing, 45 immigrants were scheduled to appear, followed by another 45 an hour later. Compare that to what Giselle Garcia with NorCal Resist, a Sacramento-based mutual aid organization assisting immigrants facing deportation proceedings, says was typical before: between 15 and 25 respondents per docket.

Take Jose, a Mexican immigrant who came to the United States with his two daughters in 2024 after being attacked in Sinaloa. He represented himself at his hearing and walked out with a gut-punch of a deadline: two months to find an attorney and prepare his case. He knows others whose hearings were scheduled years into the future.“I know someone who was told to come back in two years,”he said in Spanish.“They’re asking me to come back in two months.”For a man whose family is still adjusting to Sacramento and learning English, finding affordable legal representation in that window feels nearly impossible. Sacramento’s immigration attorneys are already fully booked. More people competing for fewer slots means longer waits, higher costs, and some families going unrepresented.

The human cost is already visible. At the Sacramento hearing CapRadio attended, 35 people didn’t show up across both sessions. Giselle Garcia stressed the gravity of that absence:“Those individuals will likely be receiving removal orders because they did not attend. But we don’t know how many of those respondents didn’t come because of fear or because they didn’t receive the appropriate notice.”Garcia also fears shorter timelines between hearings could discourage people from returning to court at all. When you’re told you have two months to pull together a defense in a foreign country, staying engaged becomes harder.

Greg Chen with the American Immigration Lawyers Association noted that courtrooms designed to handle around 20 cases are now processing as many as 100. That’s not just a procedural inconvenience—it’s a bottleneck that puts real people at risk of deportation without adequate legal counsel or preparation time. The Executive Office for Immigration Review says it will continue making scheduling adjustments to handle cases“in a timely and lawful manner,”but the system as currently configured appears to be grinding faster than the most vulnerable can keep up with.

For Jose, the clock is ticking toward August. He’s determined to find a lawyer, but he’s also realistic about what happens if his asylum claim fails.“All we can do is cry,”he said in Spanish.“They have our address. They have everything. We can’t hide.”That’s not just a personal anxiety—it’s a window into what happens when court efficiency becomes indistinguishable from court overwhelm.