Judge Janette L. Allen

FY 2018 - 2023, Los Angeles Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Janette L. Allen to begin hearing cases in October2018. Judge Allen earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2004 from Trinity University and a Juris Doctorin 2008 from American University. From 2016 to 2018, she served as senior litigation counselfor Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, Department of Justice. From 2008 to 2016,she was a trial attorney with the same office, where she entered on duty as a law clerk in 2007through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. Judge Allen is a member of the Maryland StateBar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Allen were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Allen decided 258 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 129, granted 2 other types of relief, and denied relief to 127. Converted to percentage terms, Allen denied 49.2 percent and granted 50.8 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Allen'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 Allen's denial rate of 49.2 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 Allen decided these cases denied asylum 66.8 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Allen'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 Allen, 10.1% 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 Allen came from Guatemala. Individuals from this country made up 26.0% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Allen were: El Salvador (19.4%), China (16.7%), Mexico (14.3%), Honduras (7.0%). 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%).