Politics & Government Quiet since Aug 13 Updated Aug 13, 2026
The mega master deportation surge
Trump administration mega master immigration hearings are compressing docket windows in New York's immigration courts, pushing in-absentia removal orders to more than double in June to 4,447. Hearing notice has collapsed to a median of 42 days, and immigration attorneys say many people learn of new dates only through an online portal, not by mail. The fight is over whether people ordered removed for missing hearings they never knew about can get their cases reopened.
The story so far
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Aug 13, 2026 Latest
New York State committed $7.25 million toward lawyers for roughly 1,400 unaccompanied migrant children statewide, including 250 already in ICE detention, after the federal contract funding their legal representation lapsed July 31. Gov. Hochul, Mayor Mamdani and Attorney General Letitia James announced the funding together in Manhattan, routed through a coalition led by the Hispanic Federation; more than 700 of the children are in New York City.
Gothamist 
Politics | Spectrum News NY1 -
Aug 7, 2026
At Manhattan's court for detained migrant children, a judge gave an 11-year-old Guatemalan boy named Diego two and a half weeks to complete his own asylum application without a lawyer, in the first docket held since the $356 million federal contract funding lawyers for unaccompanied children lapsed July 31; 43 children's cases were heard that day, most without a lawyer, Documented reported. A federal judge separately ordered Washington to pay nonprofits for months of unpaid legal work by Friday, though the program's future funding remains unresolved, El Diario NY reported.
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Aug 1, 2026
Roughly 1,400 migrant children statewide risked facing deportation court without a lawyer once a federal legal-aid contract lapses Friday, Chalkbeat reported, as a separate push to accelerate children's asylum cases threatened to hasten their deportations, New York Focus reported.
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Jul 22, 2026
In-absentia removal orders at New York City's immigration courts more than doubled in June to 4,447, as mega master hearings compressed dockets to more than 100 cases a day under a single judge and cut median hearing notice to 42 days, down from roughly 180 days, according to a bklg.org analysis reported by The City Reporter.
El Diario NY 
New York Focus 
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