Judge Gina Reynolds

FY 2019 - 2024, Chicago Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Gina L. Reynolds was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in October 2022. Judge Reynolds earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1999 from the University of Pittsburgh and a Juris Doctor in 2004 from the University of Notre Dame Law School. From 2009 to 2022, she was an attorney at Hernandez & Reynolds LLC (formerly known as Moises Hernandez, Esq. LLC) in Chicago, and a partner at the same from 2014 to 2022. From 2006 to 2008 she was in private practice in Chicago. From 2003 to 2004 she was a law clerk at the Notre Dame Legal Aid Immigration & Asylum Clinic. Judge Reynolds is a member of the Illinois State Bar and the New York State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Reynolds were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Reynolds decided 322 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 283, granted 1 other types of relief, and denied relief to 38. Converted to percentage terms, Reynolds denied 11.8 percent and granted 88.2 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Reynolds'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 Reynolds's denial rate of 11.8 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Chicago Immigration Court where Judge Reynolds decided these cases denied asylum 42.1 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Reynolds'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 Reynolds, 4.3% 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 Reynolds came from Russia. Individuals from this country made up 27.6% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Reynolds were: Nicaragua (12.4%), Venezuela (10.2%), India (6.8%), Colombia (4.7%). 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%).