Judge John Siemietkowski

FY 2018 - 2023, New York Immigration Court

Published Oct 19, 2023

Attorney General Barr appointed John J. Siemietkowski to begin hearing cases in January 2020. Judge Siemietkowski earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1984 from Georgetown University, a Juris Doctor in 1987 from Catholic University, and a Masters of Law in 2000 from the Army Judge Advocate General’s School. From 2002 to November 2019, Judge Siemietkowski worked as a trial attorney at the Commercial Litigation Branch, Department of Justice, in the District of Columbia. From June to December 2018, he served as the U.S. deputy justice attaché to Afghanistan. In 2018, Judge Siemietkowski retired from the Army after a nearly 30-year career as an active duty and reserve JAG attorney. His military career spanned tours as a prosecutor, defense counsel, and trial judge. He taught at the Army JAG School, initially as a professor of Government Contracts & Fiscal Law, and later as a professor of Criminal Law and Trial Advocacy. In his last tour, from October 2016 to September 2017, he served in Kabul as the military coalition’s counter-corruption director. Judge Siemietkowski is a member of the Pennsylvania State Bar, State Bar of Texas, and Virginia State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Siemietkowski were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Siemietkowski decided 361 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 137, granted 0 other types of relief, and denied relief to 224. Converted to percentage terms, Siemietkowski denied 62.0 percent and granted 38.0 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Siemietkowski'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 Siemietkowski's denial rate of 62.0 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the New York Immigration Court where Judge Siemietkowski decided these cases denied asylum 34.4 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Siemietkowski'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 (80%) are denied asylum. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful. In the case of Judge Siemietkowski, 7.5% were not represented by an attorney. See Figure 3. For the nation as a whole, about 15.7% 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 Siemietkowski came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 20.5% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Siemietkowski were: Guatemala (16.1%), China (12.5%), El Salvador (9.4%), Ecuador (7.2%). 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 (16.6%), Guatemala (15.1%), Honduras (13.8%), Mexico (9.2%), China (6.8%), India (5.1%), Venezuela (3.2%), Ecuador (3.1%), Cuba (2.4%), Nicaragua (2.3%), Brazil (2.0%), Colombia (1.4%), Cameroon (1.4%).