The Montgomery Street immigration court in downtown San Francisco will close to the public by the first of May, according to the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which runs the court.
Mission Local previously reported the court was set to close by the end of this calendar year, but this announcement moves that timeline up by eight months.
In a written statement to Mission Local, the Executive Office for Immigration Review confirmed the closure, calling the move “cost effective.”
The Montgomery Street court is one of two immigration courts in downtown San Francisco. The other, at 630 Sansome St., will remain open. Though most cases will be moved to the Concord court some 28 miles away, some cases originally assigned to Montgomery Street will be reassigned to Sansome, according to the statement.
Both San Francisco courts are already operating at reduced capacity. At the start of the second Trump administration, there were 21 judges between the two courts. Presently, there are just two.
The rest have been fired, retired or reassigned. In all, over 100 immigration judges across the nation have been fired without cause by the Trump administration.
Milli Atkinson runs the Attorney of the Day program through the San Francisco Bar Association, which provides legal resources to immigrants in court. She said she is encouraging immigrants to set up accounts on the Executive Office for Immigration Review online portal to keep track of where they are expected to show up for court.
“I still anticipate that a lot of people are going to go to Montgomery by mistake and then miss their hearing at Sansome Street,” Atkinson said.
She emphasized the importance of immigrants updating their home addresses so that they receive notices of their court dates and locations.
“It’s just really difficult for someone to understand when their next hearing is, where their next hearing is going to be, and what they need to do to prepare for the next hearing, especially if the judge that they had who was telling them to do one thing is no longer with the court and the policies have completely changed.”
Atkinson, too, is preparing for the move. The Attorney of the Day program will be sending more representatives to Concord to support San Francisco residents in immigration proceedings there.