A 14-year-old girl was sitting alone in the courthouse pews Tuesday in one of Seattle’s immigration courtrooms at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building. A concerned lawyer walked by her occasionally and offered gestures of encouragement. She smiled. In her lap was a thick folder full of legal documents, a pen, and a phone.
At the front of the courtroom, a young man who just turned 18 was told by Presiding Judge Theresa Scala that he’s running out of time to submit his immigration documents.
Earlier that day outside the packed courtroom, a teenage girl sat in a stuffy waiting room. There was no space for her inside while her brother had his hearing.
Seattle’s immigration court is packed with kids this week. Minors used to only have their hearings on Fridays, attorneys say — but starting Tuesday, the federal government embarked on what it says is a new way to process a backlog of cases. All these cases used to take months or years to process. Now they’re being moved up, sped up, and packed in on more days — in what are called “mega master” hearings. These expanded hearings have already been taking place for adults over the past weeks and have now started for children.
It’s common for children or any immigrants who are trying to get legal status in the U.S to face these initial court hearings, or what’s called master calendar hearings alone. But some of the children at Tuesday's mega master hearing arrived with parents, guardians, and attorneys.
Federal officials say these hearings are a way to quickly remove cases from the system that have no merit and aid efforts to cut back on court backlogs.
“Unnecessary delay hurts both aliens with meritorious claims and the American public who wish to see aliens with non-meritorious claims removed as quickly as possible,” wrote a spokesperson from the Executive Office of Immigration Review in a statement to press.
In that same statement, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice wrote, “The Justice Department is restoring integrity to our immigration system by hearing cases fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly, in accordance with the law.”
Pilar Martinez, an attorney with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, was part of a group of legal observers and volunteer attorneys who descended upon the hallways of Seattle’s immigration court to monitor the accelerated and condensed proceedings and their impact on youth pursuing legal status.
“It's just meant to create chaos,” Martinez said. “There's still a lot of fear of people coming to court from what happened last summer.”
In the summer of 2025, ICE began arresting people in the hallways outside the Seattle courtroom after their immigration hearings. The new approach was part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to increase deportations across the U.S. After public outcry and protests inside and outside the courtroom, there’s only been one ICE courtroom arrest this year.
But the fear still lingers for many, Martinez said, and if they stay home there’s a cost — when people don’t show up on their court dates they’re given in absentia deportation orders. It’s a common way immigrants lose their bids to stay in the U.S., and the orders are difficult to fight legally. One judge saw 106 child cases on Tuesday. More than 30 kids didn’t show and were ordered to be deported.
“Certainly the most ever,” Judge Scala said. In the coming days, weeks, and months, more of these orders are expected. On Wednesday, attorneys report documenting 99 cases — 30 of those were ordered deported for not showing up.
“The system is not a child-friendly system,” said Hillary Larsen, managing attorney with Kids in Need of Defense or KIND.
Larsen said the chances of a child achieving permanent status in the U.S. without an attorney present are low to none. At least one youth case before Judge Scala had been pushed back multiple years because the youth hadn't submitted the proper paperwork. That youth had no attorney and no adult present with them.
“It's virtually impossible to go through the system having the child represent themself,” Larsen said.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Scala linked some children’s immigration cases with their parents if they were present, where the federal government will move forward with their deportation proceedings together. Judge Scala also gave pointers to the children, and their guardians and parents if they had one present about how to file paperwork and where to find an immigration attorney. They were all given three to six weeks to do so.
“That's a very short period of time,” Larsen said.
She said the accelerated and condensed process puts undocumented minors in a precarious position with inadequate support.
“Having mega masters where there are a lot of children, many that are unrepresented, and then expecting them to have counsel in a matter of weeks for a second hearing is nearly impossible,” Larsen said.
Copyright 2026 KUOW
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