Judge Frank T. Pimentel

FY 2019 - 2024, Los Fresnos Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Frank T. Pimentel to begin hearing cases in July 2017. Judge Pimentel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1987 and a Juris Doctor in 1994 from the University of Notre Dame. From 2012 to 2017, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York in Buffalo, N.Y. From 2009 to 2012, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, in Laredo, Texas. From 2004 to 2009, he was a senior associate attorney at Mintz Levin Cohn Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. in Washington, D.C. From 1999 to 2004, he was an associate attorney at Reed Smith LLP, in Falls Church, Va. From 1995 to 1999, he served as an assistant public defender for the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office in Rochester, N.Y. From 1994 to 1995, he clerked for the Honorable David G. Larimer, U.S. District Court, Western District of New York. From 1987 to 1990, he served as a field artillery officer in the U.S. Army in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Turkey. Judge Pimentel is a member of the New York State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Pimentel were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Pimentel decided 396 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 41, granted 12 other types of relief, and denied relief to 343. Converted to percentage terms, Pimentel denied 86.6 percent and granted 13.4 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Pimentel'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 Pimentel's denial rate of 86.6 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Los Fresnos Immigration Court where Judge Pimentel decided these cases denied asylum 86.2 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Pimentel'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 Pimentel, 62.1% 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 Pimentel came from Nicaragua. Individuals from this country made up 23.0% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Pimentel were: Honduras (17.9%), El Salvador (8.6%), Guatemala (8.6%), Mexico (5.6%). 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%).