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ATLANTA — IMMIGRATION COURT

ATLANTA GA

9%

Asylum grant rate

of 18,506 decisions · FY1980–FY2026

95% interval: 8% — 9%

granted:
1,585
denied:
16,921
How this percentage is calculated
Grant rate = granted / (granted + denied). Administrative closures, withdrawals, abandonment and "not adjudicated" are excluded from the denominator. The unit of count is a decision per proceeding, not per application: applicants almost always file asylum, withholding and CAT protection together. Withholding and CAT grants are counted separately from asylum. U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

How this compares

  • ATLANTA — IMMIGRATION COURT9% (18,506)
  • All U.S. courts33% (1,350,724)

This comparison does not adjust for which cases a judge was given: judges see different nationalities, different shares of detained respondents, and different rates of legal representation. A difference in percentages does not by itself mean identical cases were treated differently.

Trend by fiscal year

0%25%50%75%100%1986199119982005201220192026

U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

FY2026 is incomplete: the release covers only 10 of its 12 months. Its point is drawn hollow and the segment leading to it is dashed.

Years with fewer than 10 decisions are not plotted (3): at that sample size the percentage is noise. They remain in the table.

Show as a table
Grant rate by fiscal year
Perioddecisionsgranted95% interval
FY2026partial1,8213%2% — 3%
FY20252,5705%4% — 6%
FY20241,08824%22% — 27%
FY202388824%21% — 27%
FY202254111%9% — 14%
FY20216218%6% — 10%
FY20204739%6% — 12%
FY20195792%1% — 4%
FY20184364%2% — 6%
FY20173896%4% — 9%
FY20165923%2% — 5%
FY20151983%1% — 6%
FY2014907%3% — 14%
FY201317014%9% — 19%
FY201222521%16% — 27%
FY201113029%22% — 38%
FY201013223%17% — 31%
FY200911132%24% — 41%
FY200820911%7% — 15%
FY200729911%8% — 15%
FY200624717%13% — 23%
FY200518410%6% — 15%
FY200423323%18% — 29%
FY200324918%14% — 24%
FY200223325%20% — 31%
FY200130510%8% — 14%
FY20004693%2% — 5%
FY19991,2352%1% — 2%
FY19981,2222%1% — 3%
FY19971,0041%1% — 2%
FY19969732%1% — 3%
FY19951837%4% — 11%
FY19946223%14% — 34%
FY19933732%20% — 49%
FY19925860%47% — 72%
FY19913724%13% — 40%
FY19905518%10% — 30%
FY19893043%27% — 61%
FY19887934%25% — 45%
FY1987166%1% — 28%
FY1986210%0% — 15%
FY198590%0% — 30%
FY198410%0% — 79%
FY1981250%9% — 91%

How long a case takes

From service of the NTA to the decision on the application, across all judges of this court.

17 mo

median

half of cases: 7—31 mo

based on 18,506 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided inCasesmedianhalf of cases, mo
FY20261,82132 mo26—41
FY20252,57027 mo21—36
FY20241,08822 mo16—28
FY202388821 mo14—55
FY202254158 mo40—74
FY202162140 mo26—57
FY202047316 mo13—30
FY201957912 mo8—32
FY201843623 mo17—36
FY201738916 mo12—24

Duration runs from the NTA date (charging document served) to the decision on the application. Median, not mean: the distribution has a long right tail. Cases decided this year may have begun a decade ago, so duration by year of decision is not a forecast for a case filed today.

The queue

Cases at this court with no decision yet.

120,888
cases waiting
31 mo
already waited, median
  • Half have waited between 24 mo and 39 mo.
  • 104,057 (86%) have a hearing scheduled later than the date this data was collected. The rest have no upcoming event in the release.

The queue counts proceedings with no decision in the release. The figure runs from the NTA date to the release cutoff — it is how long people have already waited, not how much longer they will. Shown separately: how many have a hearing scheduled after the cutoff. The rest have no upcoming event in the release and should not be read alongside live cases.

Judges of this court

Showing judges with at least 50 asylum decisions at this court.

0%25%50%75%100%Cassidy, William A.: 3%, n=5651Chapman, Kevin Jerome.: 21%, n=2504Rast, G. M.: 10%, n=2005Doughty, Blake: 8%, n=1295Farrar-Crockett, Emily: 21%, n=1176Maldonado, Njeri B.: 7%, n=1102Fisher, Ryan: 5%, n=899Coaxum, Ghunise L.: 2%, n=768Sydnor, Kelley N: 9%, n=757Smikle, Suzette: 9%, n=636Haer, Amy Fairchild: 12%, n=591Gillies, John M.: 19%, n=577Sease, Grace A.: 10%, n=571Murray, Winfield W.: 22%, n=540Taylor, Philip P.: 6%, n=491Barr, Philip A.: 13%, n=351Schnitzer, Michael: 8%, n=341Johnston, Paul L.: 22%, n=322Hewitt, Andrew: 5%, n=311Bell, Jennifer R.: 18%, n=288Imburgia, Joseph S.: 18%, n=235Watson, Bryan D.: 27%, n=208Redwood, Daniel J.: 2%, n=5210030010003000Decisions

Horizontally, how many decisions a judge issued; vertically, their grant rate. The band shows how much spread is explained by sample size alone.

Inside the band: the difference is not supported by a sample of that size.

Outside the band: the difference is larger than chance explains.

Hearing cases now — 17

U.S. immigration judges: volume and asylum grant rate
JudgeDecisionsGranted95% interval
Chapman, Kevin Jerome.2,50521%19% — 22%
Doughty, Blake1,2958%7% — 10%
Maldonado, Njeri B.1,1027%5% — 8%
Fisher, Ryan8995%4% — 7%
Coaxum, Ghunise L.7682%2% — 4%
Sydnor, Kelley N7579%7% — 11%
Smikle, Suzette6369%7% — 12%
Haer, Amy Fairchild59112%9% — 15%
Gillies, John M.57719%16% — 22%
Murray, Winfield W.54022%19% — 26%
Taylor, Philip P.4916%4% — 9%
Barr, Philip A.35113%10% — 17%
Schnitzer, Michael3418%5% — 11%
Hewitt, Andrew3115%3% — 7%
Bell, Jennifer R.28818%14% — 23%
Imburgia, Joseph S.nothing scheduled23518%14% — 23%
Redwood, Daniel J.522%0% — 10%

Moved to another court — 1

These judges heard cases here; their hearings are now scheduled in another city. A case reaches such a judge only if it follows them.

U.S. immigration judges: volume and asylum grant rate
JudgeCourtDecisionsGranted95% interval
Farrar-Crockett, EmilyANNANDALE — IMMIGRATION COURT1,17621%19% — 24%

Worked here before — 5

They have no hearings scheduled anywhere after the release cutoff. Their rates remain in the court's statistics — the decisions were made — but for someone holding a notice they are no longer about their case.

U.S. immigration judges: volume and asylum grant rate
JudgeDecisionsGranted95% interval
Cassidy, William A.not hearing cases5,6513%3% — 4%
Rast, G. M.not hearing cases2,00510%9% — 12%
Sease, Grace A.not hearing cases57110%8% — 13%
Johnston, Paul L.not hearing cases32222%18% — 27%
Watson, Bryan D.nothing scheduled20827%22% — 34%

Status is derived from the court calendar: whether the judge has hearings scheduled after the release cutoff. The EOIR release carries no personnel data, so retirement, removal, elevation to the BIA and extended absence cannot be told apart — only what the data shows is stated here. Hearings are scheduled two to three years out, so an empty calendar for a working judge is rare; for judges who went quiet in the last few months it may still be an artifact of the cutoff, which lags by about a month. The lookup table's "active" flag is not used: it disagrees with the calendar for a third of judges.

Data comes from the monthly EOIR Case Data release (U.S. DOJ FOIA Library). This service is not affiliated with the U.S. government and does not provide legal advice. The data lags by roughly a month; for current case status use ACIS and Respondent Access. The source is known to have missing records, including relief applications — absent data does not mean it is absent from your case.