The immigration attorney Liudmila Marcelo warned this week that numerous judges are assigning individual court dates for September, October, and November 2026, a significant shift from previous calendars that projected hearings until 2029.
Many immigrants with pending asylum cases may face their final hearings sooner than expected.
Marcelo, who participated in an interview for CiberCuba, conducted by Tania Costa, explained the phenomenon based on what he directly observed in a preliminary hearing. "Yesterday I was in a master court session and I saw that this judge was issuing final rulings for September 2026," the attorney noted.
The change is in response to the massive addition of new immigration judges announced by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in May 2026: 77 new judges and five temporary judges, the largest class in its history.
Many of these judges are being assigned exclusively to conduct master hearings—preliminary hearings—and then transfer the cases to other judges who will handle the final courts.
However, Marcelo clarified that not all courts follow this scheme. "There are other judges who are still working with their own schedule, who haven't been assigned a new judge to work with them or haven’t been told to transfer their cases to a new judge, and they continue setting hearings for 2029," he specified.
The lawyer also addressed common questions regarding the payment of the asylum fee in court. As she explained, the applicant should not pay on their own initiative: "You have to receive an order from the judge telling you that you need to pay the fee. The judge is the one who will send you that order."
However, he recommended paying the annual fee if a year has passed since the last payment: “If you paid it in, let’s say, August 2025, then pay the annual fee in July 2026.”
Regarding the atmosphere in the Miramar offices and the courts in Miami, Marcelo was straightforward: "Calm. And in the courts as well. So, it's all about tranquility."
This scenario occurs in parallel to a new interim rule from USCIS that came into effect on July 28, 2026, allowing affirmative asylum cases to be referred directly to immigration court without first conducting an interview with an asylum officer.
The measure could affect up to 444,000 applications out of a total of approximately 1.4 million pending. Marcelo described the rule as contrary to the immigration law approved by Congress, as it removes the legal distinction between affirmative and defensive asylum.
A follower asked the lawyer what the chances would be for a change in immigration policy if the Republicans lost the House of Representatives and the Senate. Marcelo was cautious: "Right now, it's not something that can be seen quickly, but there will be a tendency for things to improve after 2028, early 2029. That's why I want people to appeal, to hang in there."
The deadline to submit public comments on the new USCIS rule is set for September 28, 2026, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), which has also warned of possible legal challenges against the measure.
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