Judge James F. McCarthy, III

FY 2019 - 2024, Cleveland Immigration Court

Published Nov 7, 2024

Attorney General William Barr appointed James F. McCarthy III to begin supervisoryimmigration court duties and hearing cases in May 2019. He oversees the Cleveland ImmigrationCourt. Judge McCarthy earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1974 from Xavier University and a JurisDoctor in 1977 from the Ohio State University College of Law. From 1995 until 2019, he was ashareholder in the law firm of Katz, Teller, Brant & Hild. From 1983 to 1995, he was an assistantcity solicitor and chief trial counsel for the city of Cincinnati. During that same time, he was ajudge advocate for the U. S. Navy in the following locations: Washington Navy Yard, NavalLegal Service Office; Norfolk, Virginia, Naval Legal Service Office; Newport, Rhode Island,Office of the Judge Advocate; Naval Air Station Pensacola, and Florida; Naval Air Station,Oceana, Virginia. From 1981 to 1983, he was with the law firm of Smith & Schnacke. From1977 to 1981, he was an active duty judge advocate with the U.S. Navy at Commander NavalSurface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet and Naval Legal Service Office, Norfolk, Virginia. JudgeMcCarthy is a member of the Ohio Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge McCarthy were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2019 through 2024. During this period, court records show that Judge McCarthy decided 122 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 18, granted 1 other types of relief, and denied relief to 103. Converted to percentage terms, McCarthy denied 84.4 percent and granted 15.6 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge McCarthy'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 McCarthy's denial rate of 84.4 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 57.7 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Cleveland Immigration Court where Judge McCarthy decided these cases denied asylum 77.3 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge McCarthy'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 McCarthy, 3.3% 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 McCarthy came from Guatemala. Individuals from this country made up 32.8% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge McCarthy were: El Salvador (22.1%), Honduras (8.2%), Mexico (7.4%), Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan) (5.7%). 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%).