Judge Amber D George

FY 2017 - 2022, San Francisco Immigration Court

Published Oct 26, 2022

Attorney General William P. Barr appointed Amber D. George as an immigration judge inMarch 2020. Judge George earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1990 from the University of NotreDame, a Master of International Management in 1992 from Thunderbird School of GlobalManagement, and a Juris Doctor in 2002 from the University of California, Hastings College ofthe Law. From 2003 to 2020, she was in private practice, in San Francisco, including her ownsolo practice from 2011 to 2013. From 1993 to 1999, she worked in the mobiletelecommunications field for AirTouch International (now Vodafone). Judge George is amember of the State Bar of California.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge George were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2017 through 2022. During this period, court records show that Judge George decided 445 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 405, granted 1 other types of relief, and denied relief to 39. Converted to percentage terms, George denied 8.8 percent and granted 91.2 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge George'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 George's denial rate of 8.8 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 63.8 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the San Francisco Immigration Court where Judge George decided these cases denied asylum 32.1 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge George'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 George, 2.7% 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 George came from Guatemala. Individuals from this country made up 25.2% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge George were: India (22.0%), El Salvador (19.8%), Mexico (12.6%), Honduras (10.3%). 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%).