In absentia removal orders are increasing at a rapid pace unlike ever before.
NPR has published a story about how the data they have been tracking shows a massive increase in in absentia removal orders (orders entered by the Judge because the respondent did not appear) in recent months. This is happening throughout the country at almost every Immigration Court. They report that in absentia removal orders in fiscal year 2025 have nearly tripled that of the previous year — topping over 50,000. That is over 4,000 in absentia removal orders a month.
Going back ten years there has never been a year that reached 20,000 in absentia removal orders. The closest was last year in 2024, when there was 19,062. The average was 7,737 in absentia removal orders per year from 2015-2024.
The article includes quotes from several immigration lawyers around the US, all of whom agree that there is an obvious reason for the sudden tripling of in absentia orders this year. Since the Trump administration has been arresting immigrants when they appear for their hearing attempting to follow the immigration law, many are scared to appear for their hearing. They know that if they don’t show up they will be ordered removed but they would rather that then be arrested and jailed then ultimately returned to the country that they are fleeing.
It isn’t difficult to understand why this happening and it isn’t a stretch to assume that this is exactly the outcome that the administration wanted. It could take a year or longer to conduct 50,000 removal hearings. Further, each respondent would require at least two hearings (one master hearing to do pleadings and schedule a trial date and one individual hearing to gather testimony and present the case), and usually there are multiple master hearings before the trial especially when the respondents are not represented by counsel. That would be a minimum of 100,000 hearings that would have to be scheduled along with the three million pending cases that are in the Court’s backlog. Now they have 50,000 more removal orders that they can brag about and they didn’t even have to have hearings.
In Absentia adverb: The occurrence of proceedings in the absence of a subject person whose presence would normally be expected. If a respondent does not appear in court on the day of their hearing the Judge may go forward with the case despite their absence so long as the Judge is satisfied that the respondent had notice of the hearing and since no one is there to advocate for the respondent that will usually result in an order of removal. That is an in absentia removal order.
Source: Department of Justice‘s in absentia removal order statistics available at https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1344891/dl?inline; NPR Article available at https://www.npr.org/2025/12/22/nx-s1-5583971/trump-ice-immigration-arrests-deportation-no-shows.
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