It was April 10 and Nina Fróes sat on the bench at Chelmsford Immigration Court, presiding over a straightforward asylum case. In the middle of the proceedings, at 3:01 p.m., an email notification appeared on her screen that cut the hearing short. Its title read: NOTICE OF NON-CONVERSION.
“I didn’t even open or read my email because the title said it all,” she said. “I was conscious of the fact that I was not going to change my expression at all. I just said: ‘I need to suspend the hearing for today.’”
