Judge Sherease R. Pratt

FY 2019 - 2024, Arlington Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Sherease R. Pratt was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in February 2023. Judge Pratt earned a Bachelor of Science in 1987 from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor in 1993 from Tulane University School of Law. From 2018 to 2022, she was a senior litigation counsel with the Appellate Court Section, Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL), Civil Division, Department of Justice (DOJ). From 2008 to 2018, she served as a trial attorney and later a senior litigation counsel with the District Court Section, OIL. In 2013, while on temporary details, she served as a trial attorney in DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, and as a special assistant to the Counselor to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Blue Campaign Against Human Trafficking, Office of the Secretary. From 1993 to 2008, she served as a staff attorney in the Offices of the Chief Counsel and General Counsel for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. In 2007 and 2008, while on temporary details, she served as a special assistant U.S. attorney in both the Civil and Criminal Divisions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Judge Pratt is a member of the New York State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Pratt were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Pratt decided 152 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 125, granted 3 other types of relief, and denied relief to 24. Converted to percentage terms, Pratt denied 15.8 percent and granted 84.2 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Pratt'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 Pratt's denial rate of 15.8 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Arlington Immigration Court where Judge Pratt decided these cases denied asylum 54.6 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Pratt'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 Pratt, 2.6% 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 Pratt came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 24.3% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Pratt were: Honduras (17.1%), Guatemala (11.2%), Peru (4.6%), Egypt (3.9%). 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%).