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Attorneys who have experience in multiple courts said the judges in Atlanta seem particularly reticent to grant relief, especially asylum, and are often aggressive in their questioning of people who say they’ve experienced trauma.
All five Atlanta immigration court judges have higher than average rates of denial for asylum, according to data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC.
Judge Earle Wilson denied asylum about 94 percent of the time from fiscal years 2009 to 2014, the 17th-highest denial rate in the nation. Judges William Cassidy and Pelletier denied more than 80 percent of asylum claims, and Judges Wayne Houser and Michael Baird denied about 60 percent. The national average was about 49 percent, according to TRAC.
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