Judge William L. Abbott

FY 2019 - 2024, El Paso - Epd Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Judge Abbott was appointed as an Immigration Judge in December 1995. He was assigned to the Immigration Court in El Paso, Texas, in September 2002, after serving seven years as an Immigration Judge in Eloy, Arizona. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1983 from Southwest Texas State University, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Tulsa School of Law in 1987. After graduating from law school, Judge Abbott joined the Department of Justice through the Attorney General's Honors Program. From 1992 to 1995, Judge Abbott was a trial attorney with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in El Paso, Texas. He also served with INS as both sector counsel in El Paso from 1989 to 1992, and as a trial attorney in Houston, Texas, from 1987 to 1988. Judge Abbott served in the U.S. Navy from 1976 to 1982. He is a member of both the Oklahoma and Texas Bars.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Abbott were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Abbott decided 214 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 24, granted 7 other types of relief, and denied relief to 183. Converted to percentage terms, Abbott denied 85.5 percent and granted 14.5 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Abbott'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 Abbott's denial rate of 85.5 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the El Paso - Epd Immigration Court where Judge Abbott decided these cases denied asylum 79.8 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Abbott'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 (77%) are denied asylum. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful. In the case of Judge Abbott, 55.1% were not represented by an attorney. See Figure 3. For the nation as a whole, about 16.4% 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 Abbott came from Cuba. Individuals from this country made up 14.5% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Abbott were: Guatemala (14.0%), Venezuela (12.6%), Nicaragua (9.8%), El Salvador (8.9%). 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 (14.0%), Guatemala (13.2%), Honduras (12.4%), Mexico (8.2%), China (6.1%), India (5.4%), Venezuela (4.0%), Ecuador (3.7%), Nicaragua (3.5%), Colombia (2.9%), Cuba (2.6%), Brazil (2.6%), Russia (2.4%).