U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter on Wednesday, October 21, to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) urging it to investigate what he called the Trump administration's rapid establishment of new, hidden immigration courts inside Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facilities, his office announced. Durbin wrote that the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is establishing the courts in DHS facilities where they are managed by DHS personnel, even though Congress separated immigration enforcement from the courts' adjudicatory role.

Source: Sen. Dick Durbin — Durbin Urges GAO To Investigate New, Hidden Immigration Courts (Oct. 21, 2026)

Durbin alleged that his staff documented DHS officials, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel, regularly prohibiting public access to courtrooms at DHS facilities, and that new court locations where judges appear virtually were set up without formal public notice. He wrote that his staff were barred from a court in a FEMA building on three separate occasions, found the courtroom doors locked with no signage, and observed DHS agents and contractors prevent family members of unrepresented respondents from entering. Those are Durbin's allegations in the letter; the administration has not responded to the letter in the reporting reviewed for this story.

Source: Sen. Dick Durbin — letter to GAO as released Oct. 21, 2026

Separate reporting confirms pop-up courts in federal buildings

Independent reporting by American Community Media, carried by the Westside Story Newspaper, confirms the underlying setup Durbin describes: DHS has used federal office buildings as makeshift immigration courts with judges deciding cases by video, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Two such courts were confirmed in Washington, D.C., and Manhattan, New York, with additional locations considered in Chicago, Miami, Denver, San Antonio and Los Angeles, the report said. Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona told a September 29 AILA briefing that he was initially denied entry to the D.C. FEMA building court on September 23 while conducting oversight, and that a judge later said a member of Congress, like any member of the public, should be permitted to observe.

Source: American Community Media via Westside Story Newspaper — DHS is using FEMA buildings as pop-up immigration courts

In a statement to American Community Media, DHS said it began using the FEMA Headquarters Conference Center for critical operations beginning September 8, that the arrangement does not divert FEMA personnel or resources, and that immigration court hearings are administered by EOIR. DHS added that access to EOIR hearing spaces is governed by EOIR policy, federal requirements and facility security procedures.

Source: DHS statement to American Community Media, via Westside Story Newspaper

3 occasionsDurbin says his staff were barred from the FEMA-building court
2 confirmedpop-up courts reported — Washington, D.C., and Manhattan
5 more citiesreported as considered: Chicago, Miami, Denver, San Antonio, Los Angeles

Durbin argued in the letter that immigrants who miss a hearing can be ordered removed in absentia, and asked GAO to examine the new courts' effects on due process and judicial independence. Yaani: the fight is not over whether immigration courts exist, but over where they sit and who controls the door — a courtroom inside the enforcement agency's own building, with the judge on a screen and the public struggling to get in, is what senators are now asking the government's watchdog to examine.