Judge Maria I. Akalski

FY 2019 - 2024, Newark Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Maria I. Akalski was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in December 2022. Judge Akalski earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1999 from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor in 2002 from New York University School of Law. From 2018 to 2022, she served as an assistant chief counsel, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in New York. From 2015 to 2018, she was an attorney in New York, working for Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy from 2017 to 2018, and as an associate counsel for immigration at WME-IMG from 2015 to 2016. From 2007 to 2015, she served in several roles with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, DHS: immigration services officer (2007- 2008); supervisory immigration services officer (2008-2011); section chief (2012-2014); and deputy field office director (2014-2015) in New York; and as a section chief (2011-2012) in Newark, New Jersey. From 2005 to 2007, she was an immigration attorney at Stephen Jeffries & Associates in New York. From 2002 to 2004, she was an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York. Judge Akalski is a member of the New York State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Akalski were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Akalski decided 808 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 31, granted 4 other types of relief, and denied relief to 773. Converted to percentage terms, Akalski denied 95.7 percent and granted 4.3 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Akalski'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 Akalski's denial rate of 95.7 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Newark Immigration Court where Judge Akalski decided these cases denied asylum 67 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Akalski'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 Akalski, 33.2% 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 Akalski came from Ecuador. Individuals from this country made up 28.2% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Akalski were: Peru (21.3%), Brazil (18.4%), Colombia (9.0%), Honduras (8.7%). 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%).