Judge Nelson A. Vargas-Padilla

FY 2018 - 2023, Baltimore Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Nelson A. Vargas-Padilla to begin hearing cases inAugust 2018. Judge Vargas-Padilla earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from the StateUniversity of New York at Albany and a Juris Doctor in 1994from the University at BuffaloSchool of Law. From 2016 to 2018, he was litigation and national security counsel for theLitigation and National Security Coordination Law Division, U.S. Citizenship and ImmigrationServices (USCIS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in Washington, D.C. From 2015 to2016, he was transformation counsel and immigration officer for the Refugee Affairs Division,USCIS, DHS, in Kenya and Malaysia. From 2013 to 2016, he was transformation counsel for theTransformation Law Division, USCIS, DHS, also in Washington, D.C. From 2001 to 2007, hewas assistant chief counsel; from 2007 to 2009, he was senior attorney; and from 2009 to 2013,he was deputy chief counsel for the Office of Chief Counsel, Immigration and CustomsEnforcement, DHS, in Baltimore, Md. From 1996 to 2001, he was attorney advisor for the Boardof Immigration Appeals, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Department of Justice inFalls Church, Va. Judge Vargas-Padilla is a member of the New Jersey State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Padilla were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Padilla decided 1109 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 400, granted 12 other types of relief, and denied relief to 697. Converted to percentage terms, Padilla denied 62.8 percent and granted 37.2 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Padilla'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 Padilla's denial rate of 62.8 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Baltimore Immigration Court where Judge Padilla decided these cases denied asylum 51.4 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Padilla'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 Padilla, 8.3% 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 Padilla came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 45.8% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Padilla were: Honduras (21.8%), Guatemala (14.8%), Cameroon (5.2%), Nicaragua (2.0%). 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%).