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Asylum BeaconU.S. immigration court data

Judge Gonzalez, Alberto E.

SAN FRANCISCO — IMMIGRATION COURT

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing
November 8, 2005
Next hearing
none scheduled
Last decision
July 22, 2016

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.

56%

Asylum grant rate

of 1,647 decisions · FY1986–FY2016

95% interval: 54%59%

granted:
925
denied:
722

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1986–FY2016 — 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 judge56% (1,647)
  • The whole court — SAN FRANCISCO — IMMIGRATION COURT56% (89,278)
  • 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%199519971999200120032005

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
Perioddecisionsgranted95% interval
FY201610%0%79%
FY200512852%44%61%
FY200426949%43%55%
FY200326455%49%61%
FY200214162%54%70%
FY200115782%75%87%
FY200013376%68%82%
FY199910750%41%60%
FY199813253%45%61%
FY199710341%32%50%
FY199613646%37%54%
FY19957547%36%58%
FY198610%0%79%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationalitydecisionsgranted95% interval
INDIA45955%51%60%
MEXICO2129%6%14%
EL SALVADOR10425%18%34%
GUATEMALA9560%50%69%
FIJI9482%73%88%
CHINA8684%75%90%
PHILIPPINES8426%18%36%
PERU5888%77%94%
INDONESIA5194%84%98%
ARMENIA4990%78%96%
IRAN2692%76%98%
PAKISTAN2045%26%66%
SOMALIA1995%75%99%
Former Countries1995%75%99%
AFGHANISTAN1788%66%97%

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.

20 mo

median

half of cases: 7—45 mo

based on 1,647 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided inCasesmedianhalf of cases, mo
FY200512841 mo1448
FY200426958 mo2671
FY200326437 mo1363
FY200214121 mo539
FY200115715 mo537
FY200013321 mo1033
FY199910717 mo1229
FY199813213 mo426
FY199710316 mo1123
FY199613610 mo613

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 decisionAppeals
Remand188
Denied169
Dismiss Appeal/Affirm IJ's Decision133
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)114
Summary Affirmance96
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD73
Withdrawal of Appeal46
Other35
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)34
Temporary Protected Status33
Sustain32
Termination19
Granted17
Dismiss as Untimely13
Summarily Dismiss8
Dismiss Soriano6
Continued5
Terminate-DHS PD5
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA5
Background Check Remand4
Administratively Closed4
Grant with no Remand2
Coercive Population Control2
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)2
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief2
Moot Bond2
Rejection1
Other Soriano1
Denied Soriano1
Administratively Closed-DHS PD1

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.