Judge Gwendylan E. Tregerman

FY 2017 - 2022, Boston Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Former Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch appointed Gwendylan E. Tregerman to begin hearing cases in April 2017. Judge Tregerman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stony Brook University in 1992 and a Juris Doctor in 1996 from the Boston University School of Law. From August 2002 to March 2017, she worked for the Office of Chief Counsel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in Boston, Mass., serving as deputy chief counsel from 2013 to 2017, senior attorney from 2007 to 2013, and assistant chief counsel from 2002 to 2007. Prior to these roles, she was a staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Ga., from 1997 to 2000, and served as acting supervisory staff attorney from 2000 to 2001. Judge Tregerman is a member of the New York State Bar, the Massachusetts Bar, and the State Bar of Georgia.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Tregerman were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Tregerman decided 664 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 266, granted 4 other types of relief, and denied relief to 394. Converted to percentage terms, Tregerman denied 59.3 percent and granted 40.7 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Tregerman'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 Tregerman's denial rate of 59.3 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Boston Immigration Court where Judge Tregerman decided these cases denied asylum 45.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Tregerman'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 Tregerman, 7.7% 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 Tregerman came from Guatemala. Individuals from this country made up 25.9% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Tregerman were: El Salvador (12.8%), Brazil (11.3%), Honduras (7.5%), Democratic Republic of Congo (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%).