Caitlin Dickerson

I think one thing that the cap on judges could reflect is that the Trump administration is trying to find ways that go around the immigration courts to remove people.

So they're trying to expand the use of something called expedited removal, which allows for people to be deported without going before a judge and trying to fight their case.

They want to be able to effectuate removals more quickly and just go around the courts entirely if they can.

So my reporting was actually done on Zoom because immigration court was being done virtually so that it could go more quickly.

It's something that started during the pandemic and that's continued into this administration as all messaging and goals and systems are being modified to effectuate deportations as quickly and efficiently as possible.

So what I saw was a judge sitting in an empty courtroom and looking into boxes on her screen, calling people up and moving incredibly quickly through their cases.

Most people in court that day were unrepresented by lawyers.

As people may or may not know, in immigration court, you don't have the right to an attorney if you can't afford one or to a jury of your peers.

And people were panicked.

They were in shambles.

I definitely saw the change in this administration wherein most people who are being arrested by ICE on a given day have been in the United States for a long time and have no criminal record.

In that, you know, I was hearing parents break down in tears, crying and saying, you know, I'm worried about my child.

There was one father in particular in my story who said he was arrested in front of his two youngest children who were both under five years old.

He said he was desperately worried about how they were going to survive without him.

People like this father, but others too, were asking about their children and how they were going to be dealt with because they'd been taken away from their children when they were arrested.

And the judge really seemed uninterested in answering their questions, was just moving very quickly through their cases.

you know, there's all this focus on numbers.

Each one of them, I was reminded in court, is not a number, is a person and has family and has employers and a community that is impacted each time that this happens.

So I was just, I was really struck by the speed with which this judge was moving through cases.

You know, you could tell that a lot of people were confused.