Judge Dianna Michelle Martínez Soler

FY 2019 - 2024, New York Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Dianna Michelle Martínez Soler was appointed as an immigration judge to begin hearing cases in November 2023. Judge Martínez Soler earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2011 from Boston College and a Juris Doctor in 2014 from the Boston University School of Law. From 2017 to 2023, she worked at Central American Legal Assistance (CALA) in Brooklyn, New York, and held the following positions: legal director (2023); supervising staff attorney (2020-2023); and Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow/staff attorney (2017- 2020). At CALA, she provided pro bono representation to noncitizens before EOIR and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security. From 2015 to 2017, she served as a judicial law clerk and then an attorney advisor at the New York – Federal Plaza Immigration Court, entering on duty through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. From 2014 to 2015, she served as a staff attorney with the Boston University School of Law’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, where she provided pro bono representation to noncitizens before EOIR, USCIS, and family court. Judge Martínez Soler is a member of the New York State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Martínez Soler were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Martínez Soler decided 112 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 86, granted 1 other types of relief, and denied relief to 25. Converted to percentage terms, Martínez Soler denied 22.3 percent and granted 77.7 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Martínez Soler'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 Martínez Soler's denial rate of 22.3 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the New York Immigration Court where Judge Martínez Soler decided these cases denied asylum 34.8 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Martínez Soler'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 Martínez Soler, 3.6% 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 Martínez Soler came from . Individuals from this country made up . of her caseload. 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%).