The government of Donald Trump has transformed the U.S. immigration judicial system in 2026, overcrowding immigration courtrooms and drastically reducing the advance notice times for hearings.
The result: deportation orders almost doubled between January 2025 and June 2026, increasing from approximately 33,000 to nearly 79,000 per month, according to data from Mobile Pathways cited by AP.
Mass audiences with minimal notice
The central mechanism of this acceleration is the master calendar mass hearings, in which a single judge can have hundreds of cases scheduled for the same day.
In June 2026, over 1,300 of these sessions were held, nearly triple the number recorded in the same month the previous year.
The notice period to appear before a court dropped from a median of 158 days in April to just 42 days in June, making it nearly impossible to obtain legal representation.
The direct consequence was the issuance of 20,763 deportation orders in absentia in a single month, during hearings with less than 45 days notice.
In Dallas, the rate of orders issued in absentia reached 29.3% in May 2026, compared to a national average of 12.3%, according to Mobile Pathways.
In some contexts, the absenteeism rate doubled to 40%.
The purge of the judiciary
Meanwhile, the administration restructured the immigration judicial body. Since January 2025, the government has dismissed over 113 immigration judges, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges, as cited by Reuters.
The backlog in the courts was approaching 4 million cases in February 2026, with only about 520 active judges.
The new judges appointed by Trump have a radically different profile: they approve asylum requests in just 6% of cases, compared to 46% of the judges who were removed.
The immigration lawyer from Florida Willy Allen III summarized it in May 2026: "There are 120 new judges trained in three or four weeks to deny cases."
The impact on Cubans
The Cuban community is among the most affected. Between October 2025 and June 2026, 4,007 Cubans received deportation orders in Florida, according to data from TRAC at Syracuse University.
Only in June 2026, the courts issued 1,642 deportation orders against Cubans nationwide.
More than 42,000 Cubans had outstanding final deportation orders according to data from the Department of Homeland Security as of November 2025.
In parallel, ICE processed nearly 6,000 people in detention centers in the Miami area in just July 2026, totaling over 41,000 detentions since January 2025, more than any other ICE office in the country.
An alternative: Voluntary departure
In response to judicial pressure, the Trump administration promoted the Homecoming Project for voluntary departures, which as of July 28 exceeded 200,000 departures, with an incentive of $2,600 per person.
The contrast with the cost of a forced deportation is striking: while a voluntary departure costs the government about $2,500, a forced deportation amounts to $18,245.
For those who already have a ruling issued, immigration lawyers warn that there are still legal avenues available: appealing can represent a second chance for those who meet the requirements.
With nearly 4 million accumulated cases and an asylum approval rate reduced to 6%, the chances of obtaining legal protection have drastically diminished for millions of immigrants, including tens of thousands of Cubans.
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