laistofficial Immigration courts inside the Justice Department are drastically accelerating immigrants' hearings and bunching them together with the goal of issuing more deportation orders. ㅤ Immigrants are now being scheduled for massive master calendar hearings — or "mega masters" — that include 100 or more people at a time. That's up from two or three dozen people at a time, which had been typical before for a first hearing. For many immigrants, this is their first appearance in court to try to make their case to be able to stay in the U.S. ㅤ Attorneys say these new hearings largely target people without lawyers representing them. Those who show up late, or not at all, are receiving removal orders, further truncating the already-limited due process available to immigrants. ㅤ 🔗 Read more at the link in bio. ㅤ 💪 Support public media: LAist.com/Donate ㅤ ✍️ Ximena Bustillo | NPR 📷Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images