COLUMBUS, Ohio — Immigration attorneys say last-minute changes to court dates and locations are leaving some people unaware of when or where they must appear, with a missed hearing potentially resulting in a removal order. Maya Lugasy, a senior attorney at Brown Immigration Law in Ohio, said clients sometimes receive updated hearing notices only days before a new date — or after the hearing has already taken place. When someone fails to appear, an immigration judge may order that person removed from the United States. Lugasy said one client received a removal order after, she alleges, he never received notice that his hearing had been moved. She said she learned the hearing had occurred the previous day when she went to court to enter her appearance. The case was closed to the public, she said, preventing her from checking its details through online court records. She is seeking to reopen it. Within days of the order, Lugasy said, the client’s wife called to report ICE vehicles near their home while her husband was away. Attorneys in Ohio and elsewhere describe two types of changes: hearings being moved to earlier dates and proceedings being shifted to different venues. Some hearings have been held in ICE offices rather than conventional immigration courts. The American Immigration Lawyers Association has warned that unfamiliar or nontraditional locations can make it harder for people to find their hearings and could contribute to missed appearances. The Department of Justice said in a September fact sheet that immigration proceedings may be held in a range of spaces, including federal offices, Department of Homeland Security detention facilities and local correctional facilities. The department said courts are generally open to the public, with exceptions that include cases involving abuse victims, classified information or protective orders. A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts, said scheduling changes and additional hearing locations are being used to move cases through a system facing a substantial backlog. The agency said it is adding immigration judges and that changes are intended to ensure cases are handled lawfully and promptly. “Unnecessary delay hurts both aliens with meritorious claims and the American public who wish to see aliens with non-meritorious claims removed as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University, counted more than 3.09 million pending immigration cases. Under federal rules described in Justice Department hearing notices, a person who does not appear may be ordered removed if the government establishes that written notice of the hearing was provided. Lugasy disputes that adequate notice reached her client and said the consequences of a missed date can be severe. The gap between the agency’s effort to move cases faster and attorneys’ concerns about notice and access has placed the reliability of hearing communications at the center of the dispute.