Judge John Burns

FY 2018 - 2023, New York Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Attorney General William P. Barr appointed John P. Burns as an Immigration Judge inDecember 2020. Judge Burns earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2004 from Beloit College and a JurisDoctor in 2009 from Fordham University School of Law. From 2016 to 2020, he served as anassistant chief counsel, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Immigration and CustomsEnforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in New York. During this time, from 2016 to2017, he deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and OperationSpartan Shield. From 2010 to 2016, he served as an attorney at the Social SecurityAdministration. Since 2013, he has served as an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG)Corps of the New York Army National Guard. Judge Burns is a member of the New York StateBar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Burns were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Burns decided 256 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 29, granted 6 other types of relief, and denied relief to 221. Converted to percentage terms, Burns denied 86.3 percent and granted 13.6 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Burns'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 Burns's denial rate of 86.3 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the New York Immigration Court where Judge Burns decided these cases denied asylum 34.4 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Burns'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 Burns, 3.1% 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 Burns came from China. Individuals from this country made up 28.1% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Burns were: Bangladesh (14.0%), Mexico (8.8%), El Salvador (7.0%), Former Countries (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%).