Videoconferencing in Removal Hearings: A Case Study of the ...

judge, printing and delivering notices or other documents to counsel, and organizing the
court call for the Master Calendar hearings. When an immigrant does not speak English
or Spanish, the judge typically uses a telephonic translation service. During the time that
we observed hearings, the judge called the interpreter through a speaker-phone at the
Chicago court. The detainee heard the interpreter at the remote site through the same
microphone that picked up the speech of the judge and the attorneys; the detainee did not,
in other words, have any direct telephone connection to the interpreter. 42 The judge did
not advise the detainee that he was using a telephone interpreter, and the judge did not
tell the interpreter that the detainee was appearing by videoconferencing. On rare
occasions, interpreters who spoke languages other than Spanish were physically present
for Master Calendar hearings. When in-person interpreters were used, they appeared at
the Chicago court, and not at the remote site.
A television with a 27-inch screen is set up in front of the tables, and cameras
project an image of the immigrant onto the television. During our observation period,
spectators could watch their detained family member on another television, situated in
front of the gate separating the attorneys and judge from the rest of the courtroom. 43 The
judge controls the television cameras with a remote control and typically focuses on the
42 The Chicago Immigration Court has recently begun using telephonic interpreters for Spanish-speaking
immigrants too. The Court now uses, when it is functioning, a technology that feeds the interpreter’s voice
directly through the television.
43
This television does not exist in the new videoconferencing courtroom, and family members can no
longer see their relative at the hearing.
26