The DOJ permanently closed SF\u2019s Montgomery Street immigration court Friday, several months earlier than previously announced. Concord’s already over-burdened immigration court will handle SF’s cases moving forward, and hearings for those cases likely won’t resume until December or later.<\/p>\n
The DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review announced the closure<\/a> of San Francisco\u2019s Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street in a statement last week. As of May 1, all of SF’s immigration cases will be processed through the Concord Immigration Court, which will also oversee the city\u2019s remaining immigration court at 630 Sansome Street.<\/p>\n As SFist previously reported<\/a>, the agency announced plans in January to close the Montgomery Street court in early 2027 with Concord’s court taking over administrative duties.<\/p>\n The agency said in its announcement Friday that shutting down the Montgomery Street location was a \u201ccost-saving measure.\u201d It said hearings tied to reassigned cases will either take place in Concord or remotely, and new hearing notices will be sent out to affected immigrants and attorneys.<\/p>\n As KGO reports<\/a>, the move combines San Francisco\u2019s roughly 120,000 pending immigration cases with Concord\u2019s existing backlog of about 60,000 cases, according to advocates working with immigrants in the Bay Area. <\/p>\n The closure follows sweeping staffing cuts to the nation\u2019s immigration courts under the Trump administration, including the dismissal of more than 100 immigration judges nationwide and over a dozen in San Francisco, many reportedly terminated by email. The San Francisco court has gone from 22 judges in 2025 to just two, according to the SF Standard<\/a>.<\/p>\n Concord\u2019s court, which opened in 2024<\/a> to help relieve pressure on San Francisco\u2019s overloaded system, has also faced staffing shortages and federal layoffs while struggling to keep up with demand.<\/p>\n Bill Hing, a law and migration studies professor at the University of San Francisco, told KGO that roughly 15,000 cases that were on the docket in SF are now in limbo, adding that the closure disproportionately affects asylum seekers who settle in the Bay Area while awaiting hearings. <\/p>\n Hing suggested the court\u2019s higher asylum approval rates may have contributed to the DOJ’s decision to shut it down.<\/p>\n Legal advocates say the transition has already caused confusion for immigrants trying to keep track of court dates and hearing locations, and they fear the chaos could lead to missed hearings and deportation orders. <\/p>\n Immigrants have received conflicting notices regarding their hearings, as some were initially informed their cases had been closed, only to be told later their hearings were simply moved, per KGO. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re sending these notices out so last minute that people are not getting them in time for the hearings,\u201d said Millie Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the Justice and Diversity Center of the Bar Association of SF, speaking to El Tecolote<\/a> last week. <\/p>\n Atkinson explains that missing a hearing could result in someone losing their chance at applying for asylum. \u201cAnd it can be very difficult, very expensive to try to get the case reopened by having to hire an attorney and pay all these fees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Concord court reportedly estimates that hearings for many SF cases may not resume until December.<\/p>\n