Judge Stephen M. Ruhle

FY 2017 - 2022, El Paso - Epd Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Judge Ruhle was appointed as an immigration judge in March 2008. Hereceived a bachelor of arts degree in 1990 from the State University ofNew York at Albany and a juris doctorate in 1993 from Albany LawSchool. From September 1997 to March 2008, Judge Ruhle worked as deputychief counsel and assistant chief counsel, Office of the Chief Counsel,U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), DHS, in El Paso, Texas. From 1994 to 1997, he served in the U.S. Navy as a staff judge advocateand judge advocate. In 1998, Judge Ruhle joined the U.S. Army Reserveand continues to serve as a judge advocate. He is a member of theNew York, Florida, and Colorado bars.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Ruhle were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Ruhle decided 165 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 41, granted 1 other types of relief, and denied relief to 123. Converted to percentage terms, Ruhle denied 74.5 percent and granted 25.4 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Ruhle'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 Ruhle's denial rate of 74.5 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the El Paso - Epd Immigration Court where Judge Ruhle decided these cases denied asylum 79.9 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Ruhle'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 Ruhle, 47.9% 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 Ruhle came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 16.4% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Ruhle were: Honduras (15.2%), Guatemala (11.5%), Cuba (9.7%), Mexico (6.1%). 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%).