Judge Morris I. Onyewuchi

FY 2018 - 2023, Los Fresnos Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch appointed Judge Morris I. Onyewuchi to begin hearing cases in March 2016. Judge Onyewuchi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from Georgia State University, a Juris Doctor in 2002 from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University, and a Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law in 2010 from the University of Oxford in Oxford, U.K. From 2002 to February 2016, Judge Onyewuchi served as assistant chief counsel and trial attorney for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Judge Onyewuchi is a member of the State Bar of Texas.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Onyewuchi were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Onyewuchi decided 404 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 20, granted 8 other types of relief, and denied relief to 376. Converted to percentage terms, Onyewuchi denied 93.1 percent and granted 7.0 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Onyewuchi'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 Onyewuchi's denial rate of 93.1 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Los Fresnos Immigration Court where Judge Onyewuchi decided these cases denied asylum 84.7 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Onyewuchi'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 Onyewuchi, 70.3% 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 Onyewuchi came from Nicaragua. Individuals from this country made up 19.8% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Onyewuchi were: Honduras (19.3%), Guatemala (9.9%), El Salvador (9.4%), Mexico (9.4%). 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 (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%).