Judge Julia Diaz-Rex
FY 2019 - 2024, Oakdale Immigration Court
Published Nov 7, 2024
Then-Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker appointed Julia Diaz-Rex to begin hearingcases in March 2019. Judge Diaz-Rex earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1990 from FloridaInternational University, a Juris Doctor in 1993 from Western Michigan University Thomas M.Cooley Law School, and a Master of Science in 2015 from the U.S. Army War College. From2005 to 2019, Judge Diaz-Rex served as an assistant U.S. attorney in various capacities for theU.S. Attorney’s Office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, including chief of the narcotics unit from 2015to 2019; a senior trial attorney in the major crimes unit from 2012 to 2015; and an assistant U.S.attorney in the financial and economic crimes unit from 2005 to 2012. From 1999 to present,Judge Diaz-Rex served in various capacities in the U.S. Army Reserve, Army National Guard,and the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, including as a military judge from 2017 to 2019, inAlexandria, Virginia; security justice advisor in 2017, in Jerusalem, Israel; commander of the174th Legal Operations Detachment from 2015 to 2017, in Miami; staff judge advocate of the 1stMission Support Command from 2012 to 2015, at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico; command judgeadvocate of the 210th Regional Support Group from 2009 to 2011, in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico;chief of justice of 174th Legal Operations Detachment attached to 1st Mission Support Commandfrom 2006 to 2009, at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico; staff judge advocate in the Army NationalGuard from 2001 to 2006, in Ohio and Puerto Rico; judge advocate in the 9th District from 1999to 2001, in Cleveland, Ohio. From 2004 to 2005, she was a trial attorney with Roth Biermann,LLP, in Cleveland, Ohio. From 2000 to 2004, she was a senior trial attorney/assistant attorneygeneral with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, in Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. From 1995to 1999, she was an active duty judge advocate with the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami. From 1994to 1995, she served an assistant public defender in Barstow, Florida. Judge Diaz-Rex is amember of the Florida Bar and Ohio State Bar.
Deciding Asylum Cases
Detailed data on decisions by Judge Diaz-Rex were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge Diaz-Rex decided 109 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 28, granted 3 other types of relief, and denied relief to 78. Converted to percentage terms, Diaz-Rex denied 71.6 percent and granted 28.5 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).
Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Diaz-Rex'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 Diaz-Rex's denial rate of 71.6 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Oakdale Immigration Court where Judge Diaz-Rex decided these cases denied asylum 73.7 percent of the time. See Figure 2.
Judge Diaz-Rex'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 Diaz-Rex, 49.5% 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 Diaz-Rex came from Cuba. Individuals from this country made up 28.4% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Diaz-Rex were: Cameroon (13.8%), Mexico (7.3%), Colombia (6.4%), Russia (6.4%). 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%).
