Judge Jan D. Latimore

FY 2018 - 2023, Los Angeles Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Judge Latimore was appointed as an Immigration Judge in March 1995. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1979, and a Juris Doctorate from New York University in 1984. From 1990 to 1995, she was in private practice in San Francisco. From 1989 to 1990, she worked as a legal counselor with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Hong Kong. From 1987 to 1989, she served as a trial attorney with the Department of Justice in Los Angeles. In 1987, Judge Latimore worked as an attorney with Catholic Charities in Washington, DC. From 1985 to 1986, she served as a consultant with the World Vision Relief Organization in Khartoum, Sudan. Judge Latimore is a member of both the California and Pennsylvania Bars.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Latimore were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Latimore decided 342 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 75, granted 6 other types of relief, and denied relief to 261. Converted to percentage terms, Latimore denied 76.3 percent and granted 23.7 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Latimore'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 Latimore's denial rate of 76.3 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Los Angeles Immigration Court where Judge Latimore decided these cases denied asylum 66.8 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Latimore'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 (80%) are denied asylum. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful. In the case of Judge Latimore, 9.6% were not represented by an attorney. See Figure 3. For the nation as a whole, about 15.7% 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 Latimore came from Mexico. Individuals from this country made up 26.0% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Latimore were: El Salvador (19.0%), China (14.9%), Guatemala (13.5%), Honduras (5.3%). 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 (16.6%), Guatemala (15.1%), Honduras (13.8%), Mexico (9.2%), China (6.8%), India (5.1%), Venezuela (3.2%), Ecuador (3.1%), Cuba (2.4%), Nicaragua (2.3%), Brazil (2.0%), Colombia (1.4%), Cameroon (1.4%).