Judge Vomacka, Alan A.

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: February 22, 2021
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: December 9, 2019

Courts worked at: 13

Worked here before

NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT1991—2021 · 65,540 hearings
CONROE — IMMIGRATION COURT2017—2017 · 330 hearings
ELIZABETH — IMMIGRATION COURT1994—2016 · 1,703 hearings
KANSAS CITY — IMMIGRATION COURT2016—2016 · 50 hearings
NEW ORLEANS — IMMIGRATION COURT2016—2016 · 215 hearings
LOS FRESNOS — IMMIGRATION COURT1987—2015 · 8,493 hearings
NEWARK — IMMIGRATION COURT2014—2014 · 109 hearings
NAPANOCH — IMMIGRATION COURT1991—2006 · 1,849 hearings
SAN FRANCISCO — IMMIGRATION COURT1997—2003 · 80 hearings
HARLINGEN — IMMIGRATION COURT1977—2002 · 27,012 hearings
DETROIT — IMMIGRATION COURT1996—1997 · 23 hearings
MIAMI — IMMIGRATION COURT1990—1992 · 283 hearings
ATLANTA — IMMIGRATION COURT1991—1992 · 27 hearings

The periods overlap, and that is not an error: a judge hears cases at a new court while still closing out old ones at the previous one. Each row answers "when did this judge work here", not "from when to when did they serve here".

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.

24%

Asylum grant rate

of 3,326 decisions · FY1980–FY2018

95% interval: 22% — 25%

granted:: 785
denied:: 2,541
other protection: withholding and the Convention Against Torture:: 1

Withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture let a person stay, but grant no refugee status and no path to a green card. They are therefore excluded from the asylum grant rate and shown as a separate figure.

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1980–FY2018 — not what happens in the court today. Asylum rules and the mix of cases have changed since.

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

This judge24% (3,326)
The whole court — NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT33% (22,417)
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

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

Years with fewer than 10 decisions are not plotted (2): at that sample size the percentage is noise. They remain in the table.

Show as a table

Grant rate by fiscal year
Period	decisions	granted	95% interval
FY2018	150	25%	19% — 33%
FY2017	143	37%	30% — 45%
FY2016	130	38%	31% — 47%
FY2015	128	42%	34% — 51%
FY2014	137	46%	38% — 54%
FY2013	144	50%	42% — 58%
FY2012	163	48%	40% — 55%
FY2011	229	29%	24% — 35%
FY2010	215	33%	27% — 39%
FY2009	73	16%	10% — 27%
FY2008	92	4%	2% — 11%
FY2007	77	9%	4% — 18%
FY2006	43	19%	10% — 33%
FY2005	49	2%	0% — 11%
FY2004	140	0%	0% — 3%
FY2003	150	5%	2% — 9%
FY2002	119	2%	0% — 6%
FY2001	121	4%	2% — 9%
FY2000	180	8%	5% — 13%
FY1999	129	19%	13% — 27%
FY1998	98	5%	2% — 11%
FY1997	46	11%	5% — 23%
FY1996	14	36%	16% — 61%
FY1995	29	17%	8% — 35%
FY1994	29	21%	10% — 38%
FY1993	68	29%	20% — 41%
FY1992	44	27%	16% — 42%
FY1991	77	23%	15% — 34%
FY1990	119	27%	20% — 35%
FY1989	149	27%	20% — 34%
FY1988	39	15%	7% — 30%
FY1987	1	0%	0% — 79%
FY1982	1	0%	0% — 79%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
CHINA	1,215	23%	21% — 25%
EL SALVADOR	273	8%	5% — 12%
NICARAGUA	188	18%	13% — 24%
ALBANIA	144	14%	9% — 20%
HONDURAS	120	21%	15% — 29%
INDIA	114	14%	9% — 22%
GUATEMALA	98	29%	21% — 38%
BANGLADESH	72	15%	9% — 25%
NEPAL	68	32%	22% — 44%
PAKISTAN	61	20%	12% — 31%
SRI LANKA	44	41%	28% — 56%
ECUADOR	43	2%	0% — 12%
HAITI	43	2%	0% — 12%
GUINEA	42	45%	31% — 60%
COLOMBIA	35	9%	3% — 22%

How long a case takes

How long it took from service of the NTA to the decision on the application, for the cases this judge has already finished.

18 mo

median

half of cases: 9—40 mo

based on 3,327 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2018	150	51 mo	46—59
FY2017	143	45 mo	38—56
FY2016	130	43 mo	26—66
FY2015	128	46 mo	33—61
FY2014	137	47 mo	32—62
FY2013	145	38 mo	23—53
FY2012	163	31 mo	21—45
FY2011	229	28 mo	19—43
FY2010	215	22 mo	15—33
FY2009	73	19 mo	12—38

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 with no decision yet. A different figure from the duration of completed cases: quick cases leave the queue first, so the long ones accumulate among those still waiting.

No undecided cases in this release.

What became of appeals to the BIA

An immigration judge's decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. This is what the Board did with those appeals. A high share of reversals and remands tells a different story than a low grant rate alone.

What became of appeals to the BIA
BIA decision	Appeals
Dismiss Appeal/Affirm IJ's Decision	2,379
Denied	953
Remand	850
Summary Affirmance	515
Withdrawal of Appeal	247
Termination	218
Other	136
Sustain	120
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	116
Granted	103
Temporary Protected Status	100
Summarily Dismiss	94
Dismiss Soriano	92
Background Check Remand	90
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	67
Moot Bond	39
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	28
American Baptist Church Settlement	26
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	24
Coercive Population Control	18
Terminate-DHS PD	13
Dismiss as Untimely	13
Other Soriano	10
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)	9
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	9
Grant with no Remand	9
Rejection	7
Summary Dismissal (a) inad reason on appeal	7
Continued	6
Summary Dismissal (G) untimely or waived appeal	4
Dismissed as Moot	3
ROP Returned to Court to correct deficiency	3
Administratively Closed	3
Denied Soriano	3
Administratively Closed-DHS PD	3
Granted Soriano	2
MB	1
Summary Dismissal (o) Other	1
Deferred Enforced Departure	1
AFD	1

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.