Detroit: Michigan’s Sole Immigration Court
Detroit is home to Michigan’s only immigration court. Every removal case in the state flows through a single building downtown, where judges decide whether someone will be allowed to remain in the U.S. or be deported. The docket covers asylum, withholding of removal, Convention Against Torture (CAT) claims, bond hearings, and other immigration matters. Judges also rule on forms of relief such as cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, and voluntary departure.
Among these, asylum hearings are especially significant. They reveal in stark detail how protection is granted or denied, and they mirror broader patterns of fairness, access, and harm across the court system. These hearings are taking place at a time when ICE raids are surging across Michigan: families are separated in their homes, people are detained without warning, and entire communities live under heightened fear. Nationally, pending asylum cases have more than doubled since 2021, and Michigan reflects the same upward trend.
Justice at High Speed
Judges in Detroit handle hundreds of asylum cases each year, often in hearings that last only minutes. Complex claims are reduced to rushed rulings, where life-altering decisions are made faster than families can explain their stories. The pace creates an illusion of efficiency, but cases that should take hours of testimony and evidence are compressed into a fraction of the time. For people facing deportation, speed becomes its own kind of punishment, substituting volume for fairness.
Stacked Against the Vulnerable
Most people appear without attorneys or interpreters, and bonds are routinely set far beyond reach. For many, detention lasts until a separate bond hearing can be won, creating detention by default rather than by necessity. Children are especially vulnerable—many arrive without legal counsel, and their cases move forward in the same hurried and adversarial environment as adults. Nationally, people with lawyers succeed three to four times more often than those without, yet in Michigan most respondents face the court alone.
When Stories Become Numbers
“Master calendar” hearings process dozens of respondents at once, grouping them by language or nationality. Individual stories collapse into bureaucratic numbers, erasing the context that should determine protection or relief. Hearings are formally public, but respondents can request privacy in sensitive cases, limiting observation. Even so, watchers document how these assembly-line structures reduce unique lives into statistics and make systemic patterns of exclusion easier to miss.
Emerging Patterns
Elevated Denial Rates
From FY 2019–2024, Detroit’s immigration judges denied 62.9% of asylum cases, compared to the 57.7% national average. The highest came from Judge Benjamin Davey, who denied nearly 80% of claims during this period.
ICE Enforcement Surge
From 2024–2025, ICE arrests in Michigan increased by 154%, according to the White House. This surge reflects stepped-up raids, new police cooperation agreements, and an overall escalation of enforcement activity across the state.
Michigan Case Backlog
In 2024, Michigan immigration courts had more than 6,000 pending asylum cases, part of a national backlog measured in the millions. Each pending case adds pressure on judges and prolongs uncertainty for families waiting to be heard.
Years Spent in Court Limbo
As of 2021, Michigan asylum seekers faced waits of 1,202 days, over three years, before their cases were resolved. These delays compound instability for families, with years spent without work authorization or in detention.
Beyond the Court
Decisions in Michigan’s immigration court don’t stay inside the courthouse walls, they ripple outward into families, neighborhoods, and entire communities. A single denial can mean separation from children, the loss of a breadwinner, or forced return to danger abroad. Years-long delays keep people from working legally, driving, or planning for the future. And when ICE arrests spike, whole neighborhoods feel the chill of enforcement, with families afraid to send kids to school or seek medical care.
By focusing on Michigan’s immigration court, we aren’t just documenting what happens inside, we’re tracing how those rulings reshape daily life for thousands of people across the state.
Why We Watch Here
We choose immigration courts because they sit at the fault line of law, politics, and humanity. Detroit’s courtroom isn’t just deciding cases, it’s deciding who gets to belong, who is forced out, and how far the government will go in enforcing that line. By watching here, we put community eyes on one of the most contested spaces in Michigan’s justice system.
Per Year in Michigan
Community as Witness
When families walk into court alone, the system counts on their isolation. Watchers transform the gallery into a place of solidarity, showing that communities are watching power in action.
Narratives Against Numbers
The court reduces stories to case files and statistics. By documenting, we reassert that each person is more than a docket entry—they are part of a larger human story.
Fragility of Human Rights
Asylum law exists on paper, but in practice access to those rights is fragile—dependent on a judge’s discretion, an interpreter’s accuracy, or whether legal aid is even available.
Resistance through Presence
In a system designed to move people through quickly and quietly, simply being there is an act of resistance. Watchers slow down the machinery by insisting it be seen.