Judge Nicholas R Ford

FY 2018 - 2023, San Francisco Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Attorney General William Barr appointed Nicholas R. Ford to begin hearing cases in May 2019.Judge Ford earned a Bachelor of Science in 1985 from Loyola University of Chicago and a JurisDoctor in 1988 from the University of Iowa College of Law. From 2003 to 2019, he served as astate of Illinois circuit court judge assigned to the criminal division of the Circuit Court of CookCounty, Chicago, Illinois. From 1997 to 2003, he was a judge assigned to the central bond courtdivision of the same court. From 1991 to 1997, he was an assistant state’s attorney assigned tothe felony trial division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Chicago. From 1988 to1991, he served as an assistant state’s attorney assigned to the major narcotics task force in theCook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Chicago. Judge Ford is a member of the Illinois StateBar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Ford were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Ford decided 702 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 333, granted 32 other types of relief, and denied relief to 337. Converted to percentage terms, Ford denied 48.0 percent and granted 52.0 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Ford'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 Ford's denial rate of 48.0 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the San Francisco Immigration Court where Judge Ford decided these cases denied asylum 29.2 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Ford'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 Ford, 8.7% 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 Ford came from India. Individuals from this country made up 27.4% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Ford were: Mexico (27.2%), El Salvador (14.7%), Guatemala (8.7%), China (4.7%). 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%).