Judge Jeffrey S. Miller

FY 2017 - 2022, Los Angeles Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Jeffrey S. Miller to begin hearing cases in October2018. Judge Miller earned a Bachelor of Science in 1996 from Berry College and a Juris Doctorin 2006 from Florida Coastal School of Law. From 2010 to 2018, he served as an assistant U.S.attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas in Corpus Christi,Texas. From 2008 to 2010, as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Judge Advocate General Corps,he served as a special assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle Districtof Florida in Tampa, Florida. From 2006 to 2008, he served as an assistant state attorney inJacksonville, Florida. From 2005 to present, he continues to serve in the U.S. Coast GuardReserves Legal Services Command in Alameda, California. Judge Miller is a member of TheFlorida State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Miller were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Miller decided 277 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 26, granted 2 other types of relief, and denied relief to 249. Converted to percentage terms, Miller denied 89.9 percent and granted 10.1 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Miller'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 Miller's denial rate of 89.9 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 Miller decided these cases denied asylum 70.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Miller'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 Miller, 6.9% 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 Miller came from Guatemala. Individuals from this country made up 31.8% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Miller were: El Salvador (30.3%), Mexico (19.5%), Honduras (6.5%), 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%).