6 events in Passaic County with a date

NJ courts speeds deportations of youths

Larger hearings, fewer delays raise concerns

By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Children and young adults in New Jersey are more exposed now to being deported than they were even a year ago, as the Trump administration prioritizes reducing a court backlog and processes more cases under its mass deportation agenda.
..... The federal immigration court in Newark [NJ] is seeing a clear push to bring more immigrants, including children, face to face with judges in large group hearings, says attorney in the field.
..... Local legal advocacy groups say that in the past three months, hearings in the Newark [NJ] court include larger numbers of people and outcomes are rushed, with as many as 50 immigrants summoned for a single hearing, and some hearings rescheduled from 2028 to 2026.
..... In an alarming departure, they say, children are lumped into adult hearings.
..... "t feels like Newark [NJ] is the next Texas," said Priscilla Monico Marin, executive director of the New Jersey consortium for Immigrant Children, which provides legal representation for undocumented children.
..... "You have this disturbing trend of many, many kids being ordered removed from the United States," Monico Marin said. "In the last few months, we are seeing kids on a wait-list for an attorney with possible relief that are being ordered removed."
..... The quickening pace of adjudicating legal cases by the Justice Department comes as he Department of Homeland Security continues immigration enforcement in local communities thorough Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and a recently revived proposal to convert a warehouse in Roxbury Township [NJ] in Morris county into an immigrant detention center.
..... "Reducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for this administration," a Justice Department spokesperson said when asked about the movement in Newark's [NJ] feral immigration court. "The Justice Department is restoring integrity to our immigration system by hearing cases fairly, expeditiously and uniformly, in according with the law."
..... And a spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review told NorthJersey.com that the government is prioritizing "the timely completion of all cases, including those of unaccompanied lain children, and make scheduling adjustments as needed to ensure cases do not languish."
..... That will prevent "unnecessary delays," the spokesperson said, to "aliens with meritorious claims" and to "the American public who wish to see aliens with non-meritiorious claims removed as quickly as possible."
..... The government is also adding new immigration judges, he spokesperson said, and will "continue to make scheduling adjustments to ensure all cases are handled in a timely and lawful manner."

'Expedited assembly line toward deportation'

..... Newark [NJ] is he only federal court in New Jersey that hears cases involving immigration youth. Another federal court in Elizabeth [NJ] mostly handles people arrested by ICE.
..... U.S. law provides extensive protection and relief for children. The ongoing push to cycle large numbers through the immigration court has resulted in children and young adults - even those with legal pathways to immigration - being ordered to leave their homes and communities, Monico Marin said.
..... "Suddenly, the way the court is operating, it feels like kids are on his expedited assembly line toward deportations," she said. "Cases are being pushed through. Kids are being given very short continuances to return, and that's coupled with a shortage of legal providers.
..... "Children aren't just being heard on the juvenile docket. Cases are moving at lighting speed," Monico Marin said.
..... The rate of deportation orders for children in the last six months is double the rate during the Biden administration, advocates say.
..... "Over who received a case outcomes in immigration court were required to depart from the United States, compared to 43% in the last six months of the Biden administration" said Neil Agarwal, principal data scientists with the Vera Institute of Justice's Advancing Universal Representation Initiative.
..... The trend is a "cruel escalation" that shows "a disregard for due process," Agarwal said.

A day in Newark [NJ] immigration court

..... On the first Monday in June, [2026] two school-age sisters sat with their uncle in a waiting room on the 13th floor of he Peter W. Rodino Jr. Federal Building in Newark, [NJ] the state's only mitigation court for children.
..... They faced a wall with two small, laminated official portraits of President Donald Trump, and Vice President JD Vance. The girls wore flowing dresses with a pastel peony pattern, their long hair combed into tiny princess braids.
..... They faced a wall with two small, laminated official portraits of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. the girls wore flowing dresses with a pastel peony pattern, their long hair combed into tiny princess braids.
..... Also among the unaccompanied were two brothers from Mexico, ages 20 and 11, U.S. immigration law views unmarred youths up to the age 21 as children.
..... A little before 1 PM., a group including the sisters and the brothers filed into the courtroom of Judge Shana Chen for an "advisably," she told them, because they had no attorneys.
..... "The government is seeking your removal form the U.S., Chen told the group.
..... She read a list of the government's allegations to each person, starting the same way each time, with the first allegation: "You are not a U.S. citizen." She then continued with the particulars of each case.
..... "You entered through Sasabe, Arizona," she told the 20-year-old older brother from Mexico. "You were not admitted for parole after inspection by an immigration officer."
..... Yes, he answered. No, their parents were not in the United States. Yes, they came voluntarily to the U.S. If they returned, they faced no harm in Mexico.
..... "The last time I saw you, I gave you time to hire an attorney, Chen said. "Did you hire one?"
..... "No," he answered. Speaking in fluent English, he offered proof hat he and his younger brother were waitlsted for legal representation.
..... Only 56% of the children in American immigration court have legal representation, according to Vera's research.
..... "Unfortunately, there is no relief I can approve you for,: Chen said.
..... Chen asked if he wanted too self-deport or to fight the government's order that he be removed from the country.
....."Fight," he said.
..... He was not alone. Every youth in that master hearing chose to fight their removal order.
..... Chen directed him to apply to the Board of Immigration Appeals. "Good luck, young man," she said. He returned, looking crestfallen, to sit with his younger brother.

No right to an attorney

..... There is no right to legal counsel for adults or children in immigration courts user U.S. law. children regularly go through the process "pro se," or without representation.
..... Children can defend themselves in court or endure long wait times for the state-appointed attorneys. As a result, children are being forced to choose between leaving the country voluntarily or risking being arrested by ICE if they are 18 or older, said Monico Marin.
..... When it was the sisters' turn to approach Chen in immigration court, the older sibling approached the stand - a table with a microphone. Her sister came up and stat beside her.
..... Chen asked about their father. "why isn't he here?" she said.
..... He was afraid he would be arrested by ICE, the 14-eyar-old said, speaking English with in American accent. A visibly approved Chen asked th government attorney to look up the father in this records.
..... Then the girls' uncle stood up and asked to speak. The girls were seeking asylum, he said. their father had accompanied them to court, but did not enter because he feared arrest, he said.
..... "The little one," Chen said of he younger sister, did not have an asylum case field yet.
..... After learning that they had a problem with their current attorney, she gave them six months to return with a new one and a letter from their schools in New Brunswick so she could waive their next appearance.
..... Between 2020 and December 2025, teen denied 86% of asylum cases and granted 13.8%, including forms of relief other than asylum, according to Tracreports.org a research organization that collects federal immigration and enforcement data.
..... In the courtroom that afternoon, she spoke gently to every unrepresented child, searching for ways to offer relief, and listed their options other way a concerned adult might. In effect, she seemed to be playing one role assigned to her by the government and anther more personal one.
..... Legal representation can make the difference between winning and losing an asylum case; 77% of asylum seekers who were not represented by an attorney were denied asylum between 2020 and 2025, Tracreports.org said.
..... "The power dynamic between an unrepresented child and a seasoned ICE attorney before the court, for children who are eligible for relief, is itself a huge disadvantage," said Monico Marin.

Change to special visas

..... The sisters in court that day were also applying for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a complex process involving state and federal approvals for endangered, abandoned or abused children that can lead to a visa and later a green card.
..... But after the Trump administration changed the policy in April, [2026] even youths who win this status are not safe from being returned to situations they may have previously escaped.
..... Previously, when a child acquired that special status, their case in immigration court was closed or they received a long continuance until tier visa was processed. The changed rules make it so that even with legally approved status, a child is not protected from removal while waiting, Monico Marin said.
..... "It's devastating, because SIJS is federal law, put in place by Congress with legislative intent to protect these children," she said. "those visas take a long time. Even aft4er you're approved, i takes years before you can adjust and apply for a green card.
..... "What's happening now is the immigration courts are saying they're not going to wait for this process," Monico Marin said. "It's a federal change piling on the other things we're seeing in Newark." [NJ]

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