Judge Lisa Luis

FY 2017 - 2022, Conroe Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Judge Luis in October 2010. Judge Luis received a bachelor of science degree in 1990 from the University of Houston and a juris doctorate in 1994 from the University of Houston Law Center. From 2008 to October 2010, she worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas. From 2003 to 2008, Judge Luis worked for the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of the Chief Counsel, Houston, Texas, in various capacities, including assistant chief counsel, acting deputy chief counsel and senior attorney. From 1995 to 2003, she was an assistant district counsel for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, Office of the District Counsel, Houston. During that time she was appointed as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the DOJ, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas, from 1999 to 2001. From 1994 to 1995, she served in the Attorney General's Honors Program, DOJ, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Houston Immigration Court, as a judicial law clerk. Judge Luis is a member of the State Bar of Texas.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Luis were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Luis decided 133 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 2, granted 2 other types of relief, and denied relief to 129. Converted to percentage terms, Luis denied 97.0 percent and granted 3.0 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Luis'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 Luis's denial rate of 97.0 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Conroe Immigration Court where Judge Luis decided these cases denied asylum 82.3 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Luis'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 Luis, 57.1% 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 Luis came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 27.1% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Luis were: El Salvador (24.8%), Mexico (14.3%), Guatemala (9.0%), Nigeria (3.8%). 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%).