Technically, anyone is allowed to observe some of the court proceedings. On a recent Tuesday morning, I put on a blazer and waited in the hot sun with a gathering crowd of people anxiously clutching documents, until the doors opened at 8:00. Security guards let in the first 60 or so people to wait in the air-conditioned lobby. I chatted with an immigration lawyer who is married to a friend of mine. She told me one of her former clients did the brick work in the lobby; he was never expecting to find himself back in the building under threat of deportation, but that’s what happened. That’s the kind of thing that has been happening to more and more New Yorkers lately.

The backlog in the immigration courts has been growing for the past decade, and pending cases have increased by nearly 50 percent nationally since Donald Trump became president. There are now more than 900,000 people waiting for their day in court, the majority of them waiting for a judge to decide whether or not they will be deported. Less than 5 percent of removal cases are based on a criminal conviction. Most of the rest are civil immigration cases, like crossing the border illegally or overstaying a visa. Asylum seekers’ claims are also heard in this court. About half of new immigration cases last year — 159,590 — involved asylum seekers.

One of the guards in the lobby seemed frustrated. “Move!” he shouted to a group of people confused about where exactly they were supposed to move to. Then he muttered, “God, everybody is asleep. What is this, La La Land?” Surely he wasn’t referring to the movie: There was far too much tension in that lobby for anyone to break into song. I get it. It’s a tough job, shepherding overheated, nervous immigrants and the families of the detained.

Unlike other courts, immigration court does not provide legal counsel if you’re unable to afford it. I know how complex and unwieldy the immigration system is. I’ve got my immigration lawyer on speed dial, even though she’s on maternity leave. Nationwide, just 14 percent of detained immigrants have legal counsel. That’s where my city shines: The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project is the nation’s first public defender system for immigrants facing deportation. It’s been funded by the New York City Council since 2014 and provides a free attorney to almost all detained indigent immigrants facing deportation at Varick Street.

Those attorneys though? They are really up against it. I went through the metal detector machine and took an elevator to the courtrooms on the 11th floor. The place has the feel of any other court, but that’s misleading: It’s not part of the judicial branch; it’s under the Justice Department. At first this confused me, but it’s been that way for a long time. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the courts today, was created to do so in 1983; previously they were under the Immigration and Naturalization Service, also overseen by the Justice Department. The American Bar Association, immigrant rights groups and even some immigration judges have repeatedly asked for independence so the courts can stop being used politically, but to no avail. Today, the Trump administration controls them.