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Walk-ins are welcome, no ticket required. Follow us on Facebook for updates and to join the livestream, or book a consultation if you would rather talk through your own case with us directly.

What to expect

Most people walk into immigration court having never seen one. They have been told what it is like by someone who heard it from someone else, and what they picture is usually worse and stranger than the real thing. So we are going to run one in front of you, from start to finish, and let you watch it happen before it happens to you.

Attorneys from Slatton & Hass Immigration Advocates will stage a full individual hearing, the hearing where a judge actually hears testimony and decides a case. Victoria Slatton, Ashley Hass, Niamh Connolly, and Marium Choudhry will take the parts: the judge on the bench, the attorney for the government, the attorney for the person whose case it is, and the person testifying.

We start before the courtroom. Getting into the building, going through security, finding the right floor, checking in, and what the waiting area is like. Who you may bring with you and where they sit. What to wear and what to carry. What time to arrive, and what happens to the schedule when the court is running behind, which it often is.

Then the hearing itself, in order. Where each person sits and why. How the judge opens the record and what the recording means. How an interpreter works, and that the court provides one at no cost to you. Direct examination, which is your own attorney asking you questions. Cross examination, which is the government attorney asking them. What an objection sounds like and why it is not a crisis. How documents already in the file get used. Closing argument. And then the decision, which a judge may give out loud the same day or may issue later in writing.

Then what comes after. What you leave with, when you find out, and what the next step is if the decision does not go your way, including the thirty day deadline to appeal. We will be plain about which parts of this a person controls and which parts they do not.

We will stop the hearing as we go to explain what just happened in ordinary language, and the attorneys will answer questions at the end. Nothing in the hearing is a real case. The facts are invented for the demonstration.

Who this is for

Anyone who wants to see the room before they have to sit in it, and anyone who stands beside someone who does.

• People with a hearing scheduled who want to know what the day will look like
• People whose case is still early, who would rather learn this now than the week before
• Family members who plan to come along and are not sure whether they can, or where they would sit
• Parents deciding whether to bring their children, or what to tell them
• Witnesses who have been asked to testify and have never done it
• Advocates, interpreters, faith leaders, and volunteers who accompany people to court
• Anyone who has been told something about immigration court that they would like checked

You do not need a case with our firm, or any case at all, to attend. We are not going to ask you about your situation, and you do not have to tell us anything to be in the room.

A note on what this is and is not

This is a demonstration put on by private attorneys. No judge, no court, and no government agency is involved in it or endorses it. Watching it is not legal advice, and no two cases run the same way, so what you see here is the shape of a hearing rather than a prediction about yours. If you want advice about your own case, talk to a lawyer about your own case. We are glad to be that lawyer, and we are equally glad if it is someone else.

Free resources, yours whether you come or not

These are free on our site right now, so please use them even if you cannot attend.

• Your rights by federal circuit. What the courts covering your state have said about bond hearings and who has to prove what.
• Detention resource page. What happens in the first 48 hours, how to use the ICE detainee locator, bond hearings, and how to send calls, mail, and money.
• 24 hour detention hotline, 240-891-4343. Call any hour if someone has just been detained.

Format

The event runs about two hours, including the hearing and time for questions afterward. It will be conducted in English with Spanish translation.

It is free and open to the public at the Mount Pleasant Library, 3160 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20010. Registering helps us plan seating and lets us email you if anything changes, but it is not required and walk-ins are welcome with no screening.

We will stream live on Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. No ticket or registration is required to watch online, and you do not need an account on any of them to watch.

Our cameras stay on the presenters and never on the audience. A quiet, private space will be available on site for anyone who would like a confidential moment during or after the event.