Judge Ian Robert Simons

FY 2017 - 2022, Detroit Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch appointed Ian Robert Simons to begin hearing cases in September 2016. Judge Simons earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1998 from Michigan State University and a Juris Doctor in 2001 from the Michigan State University College of Law. From 2009 to September 2016, he served as an assistant chief counsel for the Office of the Chief Counsel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in Detroit. From 2011 through 2013, he served as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, Department of Justice, in Phoenix. From 2001 through 2009, he served as an assistant prosecutor for the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, in Pontiac, Mich. Judge Simons is a member of the State Bar of Michigan.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Simons were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Simons decided 316 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 107, granted 5 other types of relief, and denied relief to 204. Converted to percentage terms, Simons denied 64.6 percent and granted 35.5 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Simons'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 Simons's denial rate of 64.6 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Detroit Immigration Court where Judge Simons decided these cases denied asylum 67.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Simons'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 Simons, 12% 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 Simons came from Guatemala. Individuals from this country made up 19.6% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Simons were: Honduras (16.5%), Iraq (15.2%), Mexico (8.5%), El Salvador (6.3%). 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%).