Judge Matthew Bohrer

FY 2019 - 2024, Hyattsville Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Matthew S. Bohrer was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in March 2022. Judge Bohrer earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2004 from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor in 2007 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. From 2019 to 2022, he served as Special Projects Coordinator for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the District of Columbia. From 2010 to 2019, he served as an Assistant State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County, in Hyattsville and Upper Marlboro, Maryland. From 2008 to 2010, he was the Special Legal Consultant to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in Miami. From 2007 to 2008, he served as a Law Clerk to Judge Federico Moreno in the Southern District of Florida, in Miami. Judge Bohrer is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and Maryland State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Bohrer were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Bohrer decided 196 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 58, granted 0 other types of relief, and denied relief to 138. Converted to percentage terms, Bohrer denied 70.4 percent and granted 29.6 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Bohrer'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 Bohrer's denial rate of 70.4 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Hyattsville Immigration Court where Judge Bohrer decided these cases denied asylum 34.9 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Bohrer'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 Bohrer, 6.6% 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 Bohrer came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 35.7% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Bohrer were: Honduras (16.8%), Cameroon (12.2%), Guatemala (10.2%), Ethiopia (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%).