Judge Wynne P. Kelly

FY 2017 - 2022, Arlington Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Then-Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker appointed Wynne P. Kelly to begin hearingcases in March 2019. Judge Kelly earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2000 from GeorgetownUniversity and a Juris Doctor in 2005 from the Fordham University School of Law. From 2008to 2019, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia. From 2007 to 2008,he was an associate attorney with Hunton & Williams LLP in Miami, Florida. From 2006 to2007, he was a judicial clerk for the Honorable K. Michael Moore, U.S. District Judge for theSouthern District of Florida, in Miami, Florida. From 2005 to 2006, he was an associate attorneywith Kelley Drye & Warren LLP in New York, New York. Judge Kelly is a member of theFlorida, New Jersey and New York Bars.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Kelly were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge Kelly decided 292 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 145, granted 3 other types of relief, and denied relief to 144. Converted to percentage terms, Kelly denied 49.3 percent and granted 50.7 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Kelly'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 Kelly's denial rate of 49.3 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Arlington Immigration Court where Judge Kelly decided these cases denied asylum 57.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Kelly'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 Kelly, 5.5% 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 Kelly came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 47.3% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Kelly were: Honduras (17.8%), Guatemala (13.0%), Ethiopia (3.8%), China (3.4%). 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%).