SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Immigration courts across the country have reported receiving more than 130,000 new cases. Roughly 30% or 38,000 are from Texas.<\/p>\n
With all of those people waiting to get in front of a judge, and with President Donald Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill requiring a cap on new immigration judges, the backlog isn\u2019t likely to be remedied soon.<\/p>\n
Spectrum News 1 spent two days inside one of two courthouses in San Antonio to get a feeling of what\u2019s happening inside. While video and audio are not allowed, just observing the proceedings provides a general understanding of what individuals and sometimes families are going through.<\/p>\n
Every day, people meet with immigration judges inside different courts on different floors. The building we entered usually doesn\u2019t include those who\u2019ve been detained, but it is occupied by individuals and families who are making their first or second court appearances. Many don\u2019t speak English, so an interpreter is present via Webex or Zoom. The entire experience is not chaotic, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents\u2014both in uniform and in plain clothes\u2014are present.<\/p>\n
Many of the proceedings are also done via Webex with attorneys representing their clients. For those who appear in person, the judge will make sure they are aware of what\u2019s happening in their case, why the government feels they are in the U.S. illegally and what the next steps are in the process. The majority of cases we sat in on had future court dates set.\u00a0Not one was before December 2026.<\/p>\n
While that ruling might seem set in stone, it\u2019s not. People could be pulled aside by ICE agents, interviewed and put on a bus or van that takes them to a detention facility. They\u2019ll still have an opportunity to see a judge and have their case heard, but it won\u2019t be the same judge and that future court date likely won\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Almanza Villasenor is the social and legal support manager for American Gateways, a nonprofit that helps immigrants obtain legal services, located on the first floor of the court building. She sees what appears like the random nature of detentions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we see every day the memos that come down, it\u2019s the discretion of the ICE officer,\u201d Villasenor said. \u201cWe might see like they only took males, then the next day it\u2019ll be like they took whole families. It\u2019s the discretion of the ICE officer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Villasenor also says it\u2019s not uncommon for ICE agents to make families an offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes a family will be stopped by ICE and they\u2019ll say, \u2018which one wants to go?\u2019 It\u2019s usually the dad that gets on the bus, while mom goes home with the kids,\u201d she said before adding, \u201cI\u2019ve also seen them take a dad and his 6-year-old son.\u201d<\/p>\n
By all accounts, the actions are legal, but they certainly toe the line considering a judge has already spoken on the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere the judge has said, \u2018I\u2019ll see you in three months\u2019 they\u2019re walking out thinking the judge will see me, but that\u2019s when the officers will say, \u2018You won\u2019t see the judge here, if we detain you, you\u2019ll see the judge virtually. So you\u2019ll still have your case, you just won\u2019t be able to go home,\u2019\u201d Villasenor said.<\/p>\n
It also became evident that people who had legal representation, either present in the room or online, had easier experiences.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sukh Kaur is a councilwoman in San Antonio, and she had the chance to sit in on proceedings a couple of weeks prior to our visit.\u00a0She noticed the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat really struck me was that if you don\u2019t have an attorney when you go in there, they treat you differently,\u201d Kaur said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like they have to provide you with an attorney, like in different courts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The overall feelings is that it\u2019s like any other court. There\u2019s judicial fairness, and charges and options are explained. But there\u2019s also a feeling that the scenario is scary, uncertain and confusing. An initial court hearing could end up with detainment, handcuffs and shackles, or even an immediate recommendation for deportation if something is misunderstood or done incorrectly.<\/p>\n
You also start to realize that this entire process\u2014though scrutinized and seemingly overwhelmed with cases now \u2014has been going on for years and through various presidential administrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a merit hearing at 1 p.m., and we\u2019re definitely getting it done today,\u201d one of the immigration judges stated in court.<\/p>\n
A merit hearing is basically the final hearing where a decision on whether an individual is staying or going is rendered. The one the judge mentioned it has been delayed since 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Immigration courts across the country have reported receiving more than 130,000 new cases. Roughly 30%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1657,1658,2160,132,12710,1570,102,138,25382,1724,223,287,82,84,83,27,1569,2053,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-183316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-austin","12":"tag-bryan-boes","13":"tag-ctv","14":"tag-dallas","15":"tag-el-paso","16":"tag-from-the-border","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-san-antonio","21":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","22":"tag-san-antonio-news","23":"tag-texas","24":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}