What happened
An Advocasí short titled “200 casos en una audiencia” describes an immigration judge working through 200 cases in a single hearing. We went looking for that number in the government’s own records. It is not there. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the Justice Department office that runs the immigration courts, does not publish how many cases are set for any one hearing session, and we found no EOIR memo that sets or reports such a number. What EOIR does publish is the size of the docket, the number of judges, the number of people ordered removed for not appearing, and the rules for the kind of hearing the short is describing. That is what this piece lays out.
The docket first. EOIR’s table “Pending Cases, New Cases, and Total Completions,” with data generated July 24, 2026, lists 3,469,569 pending cases at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, which runs through June 30. That is down from 3,722,776 at the end of fiscal year 2025 and from the high point of 3,924,993 at the end of fiscal year 2024. Two things moved at once. New cases fell: 1,783,905 in fiscal year 2024, 562,375 in fiscal year 2025, and 391,145 in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2026. Completions rose: 705,249 in fiscal year 2024, 798,808 in fiscal year 2025, and 660,343 in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2026.
Then the judges. EOIR’s table “Immigration Judge (IJ) Hiring,” data generated July 2026, lists 662 immigration judges on board at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, compared with 634 at the end of fiscal year 2025 and 735 at the end of fiscal year 2024. It lists 192 judges hired in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2026, more than in any full year on the table, and a separate count of 53 temporary immigration judges as of June 30, 2026. Divide the pending cases by the judges on board and you get roughly 5,200 pending cases per judge. That division is ours; EOIR does not publish a per-judge figure on that page.
Who this is about
The hearing in the short is what the Immigration Court Practice Manual calls a master calendar hearing. Chapter 3.14 says these hearings “are held for pleadings, scheduling, and other similar matters.” The manual lists what the judge is supposed to do at one: advise the person of “the right to a practitioner at no expense to the government,” provide a list of pro bono legal service providers in the area, explain the charges in the Notice to Appear “in non-technical language,” take pleadings, set deadlines for filing applications and documents, schedule the later hearing where contested matters and applications for relief are decided, and “advise the respondent of the consequences of failing to appear at subsequent hearing.” It is a scheduling and rights hearing, not the hearing where asylum or any other application is decided; that one is called an individual calendar hearing. The manual also says at least ten days must pass between service of the Notice to Appear and the first master calendar hearing, and that an unrepresented person “may request that the Immigration Judge continue the proceedings to another master calendar hearing to give the respondent an opportunity to obtain representation.”
So the people this concerns are those in removal proceedings, and above all those who come to court without a representative. EOIR’s “Current Representation Rates” table, data generated November 18, 2025, shows that in fiscal year 2025, 55 percent of completed cases (excluding in absentia orders, terminations and dismissals) had a representative on record. The manual is blunt about attendance. Chapter 3.16: “Any delay in the respondent’s appearance at a master calendar or individual calendar hearing may result in the respondent being ordered removed ‘in absentia’ (in the respondent’s absence).” And: “There is no appeal from a removal order issued in absentia,” although a motion to reopen to rescind it can be filed. EOIR’s “In Absentia Removal Orders” table lists 223,502 such orders in fiscal year 2024, 311,130 in fiscal year 2025, and 281,867 in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2026. On notice, Policy Memorandum 25-46 of September 12, 2025 says that when the time or place of a hearing changes, the notice of hearing is mailed “to the last address on record with the Immigration Court,” that a non-detained person must report any change of address or phone number within five days on Form EOIR-33/IC, and that if a non-detained person “fails to comply with the requisite address obligations, then there is no requirement to provide that alien with a NOH.”
What the sources do not say. None of them gives a count of cases per hearing session, a cap on it, or an instruction to set a particular number. The closest document is Policy Memorandum 25-47, also dated September 12, 2025, which sets court-level targets: 95 percent of non-detained removal cases “should be completed within 365 days (1 year)” of the filing of the Notice to Appear, and 95 percent of detained removal cases within 60 days. The same memo says “Immigration Judges retain discretion over their dockets,” states that EOIR “is not reinstating individualized performance measures for Immigration Judges at the present time,” and in a footnote reports that in fiscal year 2024, 735 judges completed 704,514 cases, “an average of roughly 958 cases per Immigration Judge.” A target for how fast a case closes is not the same thing as a number of people called into one courtroom, and the memo does not give one.
What it does not mean
- It does not mean EOIR has confirmed a 200-case hearing. We could not find that figure, or any count of cases per hearing session, in any EOIR statistic or memo. What EOIR publishes is the pending total, the number of judges, and the number of in absentia orders.
- It does not mean a master calendar hearing decides the case. Under Chapter 3.14 it is for pleadings, scheduling and advisals; applications for relief are heard at a later individual calendar hearing.
- It does not mean that a crowded courtroom changes the rule on missing a hearing. The manual says any delay in appearance may result in an in absentia order, and Policy Memorandum 25-46 cites the statute under which, once notice and removability are established, the person “shall be ordered removed in absentia.”
- It does not mean the backlog is growing. By EOIR’s own table, pending cases fell from 3,924,993 at the end of fiscal year 2024 to 3,469,569 on June 30, 2026, while completions and in absentia orders both rose. The table does not say how those completions were reached.
What to do with this
If you or someone in your family has a hearing date, the two details these documents turn on are the address on file with the immigration court and the date, time and place on the most recent notice of hearing. The manual and Policy Memorandum 25-46 say changes are mailed to the address on record and that a non-detained person has five days to report a new one. What a notice means for one person’s case, what a master calendar hearing will ask of them, and what options exist after a missed hearing are questions for a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative. The organizations below are a place to start, and every city page on this directory lists more.
Advocasí is not a law firm. We explain what a policy says and help people prepare their own paperwork once a qualified advisor has told them which path applies.