Immigration Hearings Move Into Office Buildings. L.A.'s Courts Aren't Among Them.

Cases from Maryland and Virginia courts were rescheduled to Federal Center Plaza in Washington and an agency headquarters in Falls Church.

Some people with immigration cases near Washington have been ordered to appear inside a federal office building. One lawyer said his client got eight days' notice. Hearings from three courts in Maryland and Virginia were moved to two sites, NPR reported on Sept. 4, 2026. One is Federal Center Plaza at 400 C St. SW in Washington. The other is the Falls Church, Va., headquarters of the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Miss the new date and the case can end there. Kel White, of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, attended a hearing at the Falls Church building on Sept. 2, 2026. Several people were ordered deported because they didn't show up, White told NPR.

Regulations call for at least ten days' notice. James Reyes, an immigration lawyer for 15 years, told the outlet that one client's hearing moved with eight days' warning. Cases out of the Hyattsville and Baltimore courts in Maryland and the Sterling court in Virginia were rescheduled into the two buildings. Some were pulled forward by months, with a few days' notice or none at all.

The buildings themselves are the change. The Falls Church site houses the Board of Immigration Appeals. It had run as an adjudication center for remote hearings, not as a courtroom. A clerk told the attorney Lucelia Justiniano that it opened as a hearing location on Aug. 24, 2026, NPR reported.

In the hearings the outlet described, the judge and the Department of Homeland Security attorney appeared by video. The immigrant had to be in the room.

In a statement to NPR, the Executive Office for Immigration Review said it “will continue to make scheduling adjustments, to include opening new hearing locations as needed.”

More space may be coming. The General Services Administration has an open request for lease proposals naming 18 potential locations, each with at least 10 courtrooms, according to NPR's account. A request for proposals isn't a signed lease.

Los Angeles has three immigration courts. One sits on Van Nuys Boulevard, one downtown on Olive Street, and the detained court is in Adelanto. The city also carries among the largest case backlogs in the country. No such relocation has been reported here.

One immigrant learned of the changed date only through the MigraConnect app and told NPR: “Thank God I had that application because without it they would have put me on a path to deportation.”

Hearings at Federal Center Plaza in Washington are slated to begin Sept. 9, 2026.