Judge An Mai Nguyen

FY 2017 - 2022, Los Angeles Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Former Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch appointed An Mai Nguyen to begin hearing cases in April 2017. Judge Nguyen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1996 from the University of Southern California and a Juris Doctor in 2000 from Southwestern Law School. From March 2007 to March 2017, she served as an assistant chief counsel for the Office of Chief Counsel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in Las Vegas, Nev. During this post, she served as special assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada from 2009 to 2011. From 2000 through 2003, she served as an assistant district counsel for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice, in Los Angeles, entering on duty through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. Judge Nguyen is a member of the State Bar of California.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Nguyen were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Nguyen decided 173 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 25, granted 0 other types of relief, and denied relief to 148. Converted to percentage terms, Nguyen denied 85.5 percent and granted 14.5 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Nguyen'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 Nguyen's denial rate of 85.5 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Los Angeles Immigration Court where Judge Nguyen decided these cases denied asylum 70.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Nguyen'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 Nguyen, 1.2% 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 Nguyen came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 48.6% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Nguyen were: Guatemala (22.0%), Honduras (12.7%), Mexico (8.7%), China (2.9%). 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%).