Judge Robert S. Hough

FY 2017 - 2022, El Paso Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Judge Hough was appointed as an Immigration Judge in January 2005. He received an undergraduate degree in 1979 and a Juris Doctorate in 1982, both from Tulane University. Judge Hough served as assistant chief counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service), from February 1989 to January 2005. He served in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1989 on active duty and in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1989 to present. Judge Hough is a member of the Louisiana State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Hough were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Hough decided 113 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 2, granted 3 other types of relief, and denied relief to 108. Converted to percentage terms, Hough denied 95.6 percent and granted 4.5 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Hough's denial rate each fiscal year over this recent period. (Rates for years with less than 25 decisions are not shown.)

Nationwide Comparisons

Compared to Judge Hough's denial rate of 95.6 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the El Paso Immigration Court where Judge Hough decided these cases denied asylum 71.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Hough's asylum grant and denial rates are compared with other judges serving on the same court in this table. Note that when an Immigration Judge serves on more than one court during the same period, separate Immigration Judge reports are created for any Court in which the judge rendered at least 100 asylum decisions.

Why Do Denial Rates Vary Among Judges?

Although denial rates are shaped by each Judge's judicial philosophy, denial rates are also shaped by other factors, such as the types of cases on the Judge's docket, the detained status of immigrant respondents, current immigration policies, and other factors beyond an individual Judge's control. For example, TRAC has previously found that legal representation and the nationality of the asylum seeker are just two factors that appear to impact asylum decision outcomes.

The composition of cases may differ significantly between Immigration Courts in the country. Within a single Court when cases are randomly assigned to judges sitting on that Court, each Judge should have roughly a similar composition of cases given a sufficient number of asylum cases. Then variations in asylum decisions among Judges on the same Immigration Court would appear to reflect, at least in part, the judicial philosophy that the Judge brings to the bench. However, if judges within a Court are assigned to specialized dockets or hearing locations, then case compositions are likely to continue to differ and can contribute to differences in asylum denial rates.

Representation

When asylum seekers are not represented by an attorney, almost all of them (83%) are denied asylum. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful. In the case of Judge Hough, 15.9% were not represented by an attorney. See Figure 3. For the nation as a whole, about 16.7% of asylum seekers are not represented.

Nationality

Asylum seekers are a diverse group. Over one hundred different nationalities had at least one hundred individuals claiming asylum decided during this period. As might be expected, immigration courts located in different parts of the country tend to have proportionately larger shares from some countries than from others. And, given the required legal grounds for a successful asylum claim, asylum seekers from some nations tend to be more successful than others.

The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Hough came from Mexico. Individuals from this country made up 69.0% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Hough were: El Salvador (17.7%), Honduras (4.4%), Guatemala (2.7%), Burma (0.9%). See Figure 4.

In the nation as a whole during this same period, major nationalities of asylum seekers, in descending order of frequency, were El Salvador (18.2%), Guatemala (16.0%), Honduras (14.6%), Mexico (10.5%), China (7.5%), India (4.5%), Cuba (2.5%), Venezuela (2.1%), Ecuador (2.1%), Nicaragua (1.9%), Haiti (1.7%), Cameroon (1.5%), Nepal (1.2%).