![]() ![]() ![]() There is a public website available for respondents to look up the next court date if they have the docket number, Ziesemer said, but that portal does not always reflect up to date information. Modesto learned that his new court date would not take place until later this year because Ziesemer, who represents him, accessed an online portal available only to lawyers. Throughout the pandemic, advocates said that the immigration courts have been inconsistent in notifying asylum applicants and others about rescheduled hearings - and in some cases provided no notice that dates had changed, as was the case with Modesto, an Ecuadorian national who has had a pending asylum case for about seven years. From April of 2020 through May of 2021, the month with the highest number of asylum decisions was June of last year, with just 64 asylum cases resolved. In February of 2020, 1,090 asylum cases were decided, TRAC data shows. The number of asylum decisions in New York City immigration court has dropped dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. #EOIR CASE STATUS PLUS#Ziesemer estimates that of the 150,000 plus pending cases in New York immigration courts, two-thirds of these were affected in some way by the pandemic shutdown. “Noncitizens with scheduled hearings from July 6 through July 30 (or representatives who have entered an appearance with the court for a case on those days) who did not receive a notice of reset hearing by June 22 should expect scheduled hearings to proceed as scheduled,” EOIR Regional Public Information Officer Jonathan Martin said in an email. “It’s a very serious consequence, and it’s very hard to undo that once it’s happened.” “The consequence for someone not appearing at their hearing is deportation,” she added. “Absolutely people are going to miss their hearings,” said Jodi Ziesemer, the director of the Immigrant Protection Unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group. Advocates are worried that rescheduling notices are not reaching immigrants with open cases which creates the potential for mass in absentia deportation orders. Modesto is one of an estimated tens of thousands of people who had their cases rescheduled while the non detained immigration court was shutdown due to the pandemic. New Yorkers are preparing for the immigration courts reopening at Broadway and Federal Plaza on July 6. You just don’t know what to do, where to go, or what to think.” “If they cancel and they don’t tell you, it’s really frustrating. “I received absolutely nothing,” Modesto, a citizen of Ecuador who asked to be identified by only his middle name for security reasons, said in Spanish. To this day, the government has still not sent him an official notice of a new date for his asylum case. He had received no notice by mail that his hearing had been postponed, or that the court was closed. Last November, Modesto showed up for his immigration court hearing at Federal Plaza only to see that the building was shuttered. ![]()
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