Judge Maritza Ramos

FY 2018 - 2023, Houston Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Maritza S. Ramos was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in March 2022. Judge Ramos earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1997 from Florida State University, a Juris Doctorate in 2001 from St. Thomas University College of Law in Miami Gardens, Florida, and a Master in Management in 2004 from St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida. From 2019 to 2022, she served as an Associate Magistrate Judge, Henry County Magistrate Court, in McDonough, Georgia. From 2018 to 2021, she was in private practice as an Associate Attorney with Cooper McCord, in McDonough, Georgia. From 2012 to 2018, she was a solo practitioner with The Law Office of Maritza S. Ramos LLC. Judge Ramos is a member of the State Bar of Georgia.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Ramos were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Ramos decided 255 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 47, granted 5 other types of relief, and denied relief to 203. Converted to percentage terms, Ramos denied 79.6 percent and granted 20.4 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Ramos'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 Ramos's denial rate of 79.6 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Houston Immigration Court where Judge Ramos decided these cases denied asylum 89.6 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Ramos'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 Ramos, 7.1% 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 Ramos came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 30.6% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Ramos were: Honduras (22.7%), Venezuela (18.8%), Guatemala (7.8%), Mexico (5.9%). 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%).