Notice to Appear is a hybrid theatrical performance and staged public tribunal that exposes the hidden mechanics of U.S. immigration courts and the arbitrary forces determining asylum seekers’ fates. It interrogates the roles of all court actors—and the public’s responsibility—in the ongoing asylum crisis.

The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees states that any person persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, belonging to a social group, or political opinion has the right to request asylum. The most crucial part of the process is the Individual Merits Hearing, where, for several hours, an immigration judge assesses the worth of the individual against these five criteria and exercises outsized discretion over whether the asylum seeker stays or goes. These decisions disappear into a kind of black hole—unseen, unrecorded, and inaccessible unless you are directly entangled in a case.

Notice to Appear brings these opaque proceedings into public view, exposing how “justice” is administered behind closed doors.

Notice to Appear draws from extensive interviews with immigration judges, ICE attorneys, immigration lawyers, court interpreters, policymakers, and asylum seekers, as well as dozens of firsthand immigration court observations.

Notice to Appear work-in-progress sharing is performed by Che Kabia,  Ema Zivkovic, Zachary W. Desmond, Pau Zabaleta Llauger, Sade Namei and Yadira Correa.

It is developed through residencies at Mercury Store and supported by NYSCA, LMCC, and En Garde Arts’ Uncommon Voices program.