Have you heard of mega master hearings? They are spreading.

My name is Alan and I work as part of Never Again Action's Content Team. I witness these hearings as an accompanier with the Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN). There I volunteer as one of many citizens who abhor what is being done in our names. We are silent observers on behalf of people and communities targeted by this war our government is waging on immigrants. People normally have two immigration hearings - a master and an individual. A master hearing is a session in which many peoples' cases are heard one after another. Often these hearings are for detained people trying to get bond. Past interactions with law enforcement frequently provide the government with justification to keep people locked up even when the incident was minor or the charge has been dismissed. An individual hearing comes next. The respondent and their lawyer (if any) are present and may bring witnesses to testify to the person's good character, community and family status, and so on. Circumstances like having US citizen relatives, being a sole provider for children, and similar are considered. These hearings take time and even though the denial rate is very high that's not enough for this regime. They have quotas, you see, and they continue to invent new and terrible ways to meet them. Enter the "mega master." A mega master is a mass session at which dozens of people are ordered to appear in person and rushed through. Often the people called in for mega masters are folks who had appointments for court dates in the future. They have asylum applications in progress and some have already waited years for their applications to be heard because the system is so broken and overloaded. Many receive the notice to appear in a language they don't speak and the date for them to show up is short notice. Many appear with children clinging to them because they have no childcare available. Then they're crammed into a courtroom and - if they're lucky - get a rote recitation in their language of what is going on and when they are next expected to appear. There is no chance to answer any charges or present any evidence. If people don't show up to these mega masters for any reason they are immediately ordered removed. All their pending cases are terminated, again with no opportunity to speak for themselves, or to have a lawyer challenge what is being done to them. Along with the mega masters, the regime has fired dozens of experienced immigration judges and replaced them with compliant political appointees who are expected to cut the corners necessary to hit arbitrary deportation quotas. Some of those fired judges are now - quietly - starting to spread the word about the true agenda. They tell us clearly that the purpose of mega masters is to deport as many community members as possible. People without legal representation are the most vulnerable and most easily expelled. Even those with lawyers face steep barriers in the mega master process. People should receive translations of critical documents, but advocates tell us that is not always happening. The most common excuse made by the regime for dismissing asylum claims is that people didn't file their applications soon enough. Many of the targeted people are children, often separated from their parents, who are expected to understand what is happening to them and follow rules that were never explained. Overall, the denial rate for asylum has reached 93 percent. Advocates and community organizers, using the regular court system, are continuing to push back, exposing how ICE is violating its own rules in pursuit of these unprecedented levels of cruelty. Mega masters are one new piece of a vast system of injustice. I close with a poem. The author is unknown - it is being passed around accompanier circles. I have not personally been present for these child proceedings. The adult ones I witness are heartbreaking enough. But this has finally made the public news so everyone can know that every word of this poem is true. The respondent is two years old. She appears in immigration court without counsel. Without parent. Without language. She is placed at the table alone. The clerk types anyway. I am here to observe procedure. I am here because someone decided my presence satisfies the law. The room smells of disinfectant and paper. The flag watches from the wall, flawless, unmoving. An interpreter is sworn in, then excused. The child responds to no language offered. She speaks only need, only gesture. The judge softens his voice, as if volume were the problem. "Do you understand why you're here?" She touches the microphone. It echoes her breath. She laughs once— surprised by the sound of herself made large. For the record, this is noted as nonresponsive. I write: She believes this is a room where adults will return her to what she knows. A government attorney clears his throat. Time presses onward. Stacks of cases wait. So does lunch. They ask her to point. To choose her future with a finger still soft from sleep. _ Her feet do not reach the floor. They swing— a small metronome of waiting. The judge asks her name. She answers with a sound that could mean thirst or home. She chooses a red crayon. She chooses the microphone's echo. She chooses nothing that can be kept. No one explains removal. No one explains asylum. No one explains mother in a language she understands. I am trained not to intervene. I am not permitted to hold her. I am not permitted to say that this is what abandonment looks like when it is procedural. She cries— the astonished cry of someone who has fallen through expectation. The bailiff looks away. The judge sighs. For the record, the respondent is found removable. She is escorted from the room holding nothing. Later I will sign my name beneath these observations. The transcript will appear clean. Complete. But I will remember her shoes— how they lit up when she moved, small blue flashes across the floor, trying, briefly, to testify. (Via Never Again Action)