Judge Lorely Ramirez Fernandez

FY 2019 - 2024, El Paso Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed Lorely Ramirez Fernandez to begin hearing cases inOctober 2018. Judge Fernandez earned a Bachelor in Business Administration in 2001 from OurLady of the Lake University and a Juris Doctor in 2004 from the University of Houston LawCenter. From 2007 to 2016, she was an assistant chief counsel, and from 2016 to 2018 a seniorattorney, with the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Immigration Customs Enforcement,Department of Homeland Security, in El Paso, Texas. In 2007, she was a staff attorney with LasAmericas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso. From 2005 to 2007, she was an associate withSpector & Spector in El Paso. Judge Fernandez is a member of the Texas State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Fernandez were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Fernandez decided 129 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 91, granted 19 other types of relief, and denied relief to 19. Converted to percentage terms, Fernandez denied 14.7 percent and granted 85.2 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Fernandez'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 Fernandez's denial rate of 14.7 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the El Paso Immigration Court where Judge Fernandez decided these cases denied asylum 55.7 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Fernandez'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 Fernandez, 20.2% 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 Fernandez came from Venezuela. Individuals from this country made up 28.7% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Fernandez were: Cuba (14.0%), Nigeria (7.8%), Mexico (7.0%), Honduras (5.4%). 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%).