Judge Scott D. Criss

FY 2017 - 2022, Atlanta Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Scott D. Criss to begin hearing cases in July 2017. Judge Criss earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002 from the California State University at Long Beach and a Juris Doctor in 2005 from The John Marshall Law School. From 2008 to 2017, he served as an assistant chief counsel for the Office of Chief Counsel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in Charlotte, N.C. From 2006 to 2008, he served as an assistant state’s attorney for the Criminal Traffic Division, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, in Chicago, Ill. From 2004 to 2005, he served as an assistant state’s attorney for the Criminal Appellate Division, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Judge Criss is a member of the Illinois State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Criss were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Criss decided 134 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 4, granted 1 other types of relief, and denied relief to 129. Converted to percentage terms, Criss denied 96.3 percent and granted 3.7 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Criss'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 Criss's denial rate of 96.3 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Atlanta Immigration Court where Judge Criss decided these cases denied asylum 94.2 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Criss'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 Criss, 4.5% 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 Criss came from Mexico. Individuals from this country made up 27.6% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Criss were: El Salvador (23.1%), Guatemala (22.4%), Honduras (17.2%), Romania (2.2%). 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%).