Judge Brigitte Laforest

FY 2018 - 2023, New York Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Judge Laforest was appointed as an Immigration Judge in April 1997. She received an undergraduate degree in 1981 from Princeton University, and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center in 1987. From 1987 to 1993, Judge Laforest worked as a staff attorney at the Brooklyn Neighborhood Office, Immigration Unit, Legal Aid Society, in Brooklyn. During this time, from 1988 to 1992, she also served as a coordinator for the Citywide Immigrants' Rights Project in New York. Judge Laforest worked as a staff attorney, Civil Appeals and Law Reform Unit, Legal Aid Society, New York, from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1996 to 1997. From 1995 to 1996, she served as assistant director of student affairs at Fordham University School of Law. Judge Laforest is a member of the New York Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Laforest were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Laforest decided 1474 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 931, granted 16 other types of relief, and denied relief to 527. Converted to percentage terms, Laforest denied 35.8 percent and granted 64.3 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Laforest'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 Laforest's denial rate of 35.8 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the New York Immigration Court where Judge Laforest decided these cases denied asylum 34.4 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Laforest'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 Laforest, 4.5% 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 Laforest came from China. Individuals from this country made up 35.5% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Laforest were: India (11.0%), El Salvador (8.0%), Nepal (6.9%), Ecuador (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%).