Judge M. Audrey Carr

FY 2018 - 2023, Bloomington Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed M. Audrey Carr to begin hearing cases in October2018. Judge Carr earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1986 from Earlham College, a Master of BusinessAdministration in 1994 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Juris Doctor in 1997 fromSt. Mary’s University School of Law. From 2009 to 2018, she was director of immigration andspecial programs with Legal Services NYC in New York. From 2007 to 2009, she was anattorney with the Westchester Hispanic Coalition in Mount Vernon, New York. From 2006 to2007, she was an attorney in private practice in Carmel, New York. From 2000 to 2006, she wasan attorney with the Michael H. Davis Law Office, P.A. in Minneapolis. From 1998 to 2000, shewas a staff attorney with the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis. Judge Carris a member of the New York State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Carr were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Carr decided 298 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 129, granted 4 other types of relief, and denied relief to 165. Converted to percentage terms, Carr denied 55.4 percent and granted 44.6 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Carr'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 Carr's denial rate of 55.4 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Bloomington Immigration Court where Judge Carr decided these cases denied asylum 70 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Carr'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 Carr, 25.8% 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 Carr came from Cuba. Individuals from this country made up 14.4% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Carr were: Mexico (13.4%), El Salvador (11.7%), Honduras (11.1%), Guatemala (8.7%). 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%).