SF Immigration Court Shutters, Displacing 100K Cases

The San Francisco immigration court has permanently shut down, transferring over 100,000 pending cases to a courthouse roughly an hour away in Concord, California — a move that critics argue is part of a deliberate strategy by the Trump administration to restrict access to asylum for immigrants in one of the nation’s most historically immigrant-friendly jurisdictions.

The closure of the main courthouse at 100 Montgomery St., which housed 21 courtrooms, was accelerated after the Justice Department announced earlier this year it would not renew the building’s lease. What was originally planned as a year-end closure happened ahead of schedule, according to reporting by NPR. A smaller satellite location at 630 Sansome St. with just two operating courtrooms will remain open, keeping roughly 17,000 cases in San Francisco.

A Historic Hub for Immigrant Advocacy

San Francisco has long stood at the vanguard of immigration advocacy. The city’s deep history with immigration — from those entering through Angel Island to the Chinese Exclusion Act — set the groundwork for decades of precedent-setting litigation. Several landmark immigration cases reached the U.S. Supreme Court from San Francisco, including decisions regarding protection from deportation for union leader Harry Bridges, admission of LGBTQ+ visitors, and legal standards for asylum.

“It’s part of the message that the Trump administration is sending, that they’re not open to asylum seekers,” said Bill Hing, a law and migration studies professor at the University of San Francisco. “And one way of doing that is closing the court that has been very generous to asylum seekers. It’s sending a message that the progressive cases that have come out of San Francisco are going to end.”

The San Francisco immigration court denied asylum roughly 30% of the time in fiscal year 2025 — half the national average. Since 2004, more than half of respondents who received a decision in San Francisco were approved for asylum, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The court also had the second-highest legal representation rate in the country, with about 69% of immigrants represented by attorneys.

Judge Firings and Staffing Crisis

The closure comes amid a sweeping reduction of the immigration judge corps nationwide. The Trump administration has terminated over 130 immigration judges nationally, and many others have resigned or retired. The immigration court system now has a quarter fewer judges than it did at the start of 2025, even as the national case backlog has swelled to 3.5 million, as NPR has reported.

San Francisco was hit particularly hard. The court went from 21 judges to just 2 at the smaller Sansome St. location. The Concord Immigration Court, which must now absorb the bulk of the transferred cases, was meant to have 21 judges but currently has only 4, not counting the supervisor. Although the Justice Department onboarded a record-setting class of more than 80 new immigration judges in May, only one was assigned to Concord.

Kathryn Mattingly, spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), said the closure was driven by cost considerations. “Reducing the immigration court backlog remains a priority for the agency,” she said in a statement. “Any immigration judge can hear any case at any time throughout the country to assist with caseloads.”

Human Toll of the Closure

For immigrants caught in the system, the closure has created profound uncertainty. Elin, a Nicaraguan asylum seeker who entered the U.S. in 2020 and provided only his first name for fear of reprisals, has seen his final hearing delayed multiple times. His original judge was fired. His case is now slated for 2029 — and he does not own a car to make the more-than-hour-long commute to Concord.

“There isn’t a set date and this situation is very stressful — sometimes I am afraid to go outside,” Elin told NPR. “My brother’s asylum was approved and he just got his green card. So for me, I think this wait time is harmful because I am still in limbo.”

Immigration attorney Ghassan Shamieh, who has hundreds of cases pending in the closed Montgomery Street court, said the administration’s strategy appears designed to make the barriers to justice insurmountable. “It’s to make the barriers to having your case heard so high that it becomes almost virtually impossible,” Shamieh said. “Changing locations of the physical court is a step to further that agenda.”

Nonprofit legal organizations have stopped taking new cases due to the unpredictability. Jordan Weiner, interim executive director of La Raza Centro Legal, said her firm cannot sign new clients because hearing notices could arrive at any moment for existing cases.

Community Response and Forward Look

In response to the upheaval, a coalition of about 100 volunteers in Concord now wears bright blue vests to help immigrants navigate the court. Legal organizations in San Francisco and Concord are beginning to share resources, with San Francisco’s volunteer “attorneys of the day” training in the Concord court.

Cases currently scheduled for San Francisco are expected to be heard at Concord starting in December 2026. But with far fewer judges than needed, attorneys warn that delays will stretch for years. Former immigration judge Shira Levine noted that prolonged waits can erode the quality of asylum cases. “Over years, testimonial memories can fade,” she said.

Milli Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the Bar Association of San Francisco, reflected on the deeper significance of what has been lost. “Like Ellis Island, like Angel Island, there’s a history of tragic injustice,” she said. “But there is also a history of moments of people’s lives being changed and people having, for the first time maybe ever, the sense that they’re going to be safe and that there’s a future and hope for them and their family.”

As the Guardian has reported, legal experts doubt that Concord has the capacity to handle the influx. With the national backlog at 3.5 million cases and the administration continuing to fire judges, the closure of San Francisco’s immigration court may be only the beginning of a broader contraction of the immigration court system.