(08 Nov 2023)
TRAC released its
latest series of Immigration Judge reports, updated with asylum grant and denial rates by individual Judges through the end of FY 2023
(September 2023). These annual reports examine asylum decisions for individual Immigration Judges in
each of the 64 current immigration courts.
A total of 34 Immigration Courts had judges newly covered by TRAC’s Judge series. Among these
locations, the largest number, with 11 new Judge reports in total, occurred for New York City,
followed by the Santa Ana Immigration Court in California (10 new reports) and the Hyattsville
Immigration Court based in Virginia (9 new reports) third. The Houston - Greenspoint (8), and San
Francisco (7) Immigration Courts rounded out the top five courts with the most new judges who made the
list.
For these judges with first-time reports, the number of asylum decisions ranged from a low of 100
(TRAC’s minimum threshold) to a maximum of 547. Judge Richard Bailey of the Newark Immigration Court
decided the largest number (547) of these cases. Four other Judges have decided 400 more including:
Michelle Kahan of Boston, John Decure of New York - DET, Christine Reis of Miami, and Lettricea L.
Jefferson-Webb of San Francisco.
Wide differences in judge asylum denial rates are evident across judges in these new reports – ranging
from a high of 94.8% denied by Judge Erica Hughes in Houston down to a low of 1.2% by Judge Chloe
Dillon in San Francisco. This is, however, little different from the vast range in asylum denial rates
among other judges who TRAC has reported on this year. The latest reports show asylum denial rates
among non-first-time judges ranged from Judge Bruce Imbacuan in Houston who denied every single one of
his 105 asylum cases down to a low of denying just 2.2% of her cases by Judge Shira Levine in San
Francisco who has served there since October 2021.
During FY 2023, 123 immigration judges were commissioned. Just 21 judges out of these 123 made the
list. None of the others had decided 100 or more asylum cases since their appointment. While it is
uncommon to decide this many cases during the fiscal year of a judge’s appointment, Judges Adrian Roe
and Lucero Saldana Mistry of Boston, both appointed in May 2023 and Judge Michelle A. Slayton of San
Francisco, appointed in February 2023, already met the threshold having decided at least 100 asylum
cases.
TRAC has been producing this annual series for many years. All reports in this series including
earlier editions are available online. The earliest TRAC reports covered Immigration Judge asylum
decisions dating back to
FY 1994. The Court was smaller then with 193 individual Judges included in the series. The most recent
coverage has grown to 732 reports. The latest FY 2023 judge-by-judge asylum decision reports are
available
here.
TRAC is a self-supporting, nonpartisan, and independent research organization specializing in
data collection and analysis on federal enforcement, staffing, and spending. We produce multiple
reports every month on critical issues, and we also provide comprehensive data analysis tools.
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