On a normal day, Dale Ross said she sees about 20 or so people appear before a judge at the New Orleans Immigration Court on the fifth floor of One Canal Place Office Tower at the end of Canal Street. Now, volunteer court watchers like her are seeing numbers “closer to the hundreds.”
On the morning of June 1, more than 200 people were scheduled for immigration hearings at the court — a docket that swelled past 250 by the following day.
Most were scheduled for master calendar hearings, often used to set future court appearances as someone begins to make their case for remaining in the United States. Advocates, court watchers and immigration lawyers say many were there, traveling and waiting for hours, simply to confirm their current mailing address…