Judge Solow, Bruce W.

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: July 27, 2012
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: February 15, 2012

Courts worked at: 9

Worked here before

MIAMI — IMMIGRATION COURT1979—2012 · 72,152 hearings
OMAHA — IMMIGRATION COURT2009—2009 · 20 hearings
SAN FRANCISCO — IMMIGRATION COURT1997—2004 · 592 hearings
LOS ANGELES — WEST LOS ANGELES IMMIGRATION COURT1985—2004 · 576 hearings
DETROIT — IMMIGRATION COURT1995—2003 · 44 hearings
NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT1985—2002 · 93 hearings
PHILADELPHIA — IMMIGRATION COURT1994—1996 · 61 hearings
GUAYNABO — IMMIGRATION COURT1995—1996 · 24 hearings
ELIZABETH — IMMIGRATION COURT1993—1993 · 23 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.

18%

Asylum grant rate

of 5,513 decisions · FY1985–FY2012

95% interval: 17% — 19%

granted:: 999
denied:: 4,514
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 FY1985–FY2012 — 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 judge18% (5,513)
The whole court — MIAMI — IMMIGRATION COURT19% (104,037)
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 (1): 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
FY2012	26	50%	32% — 68%
FY2011	80	50%	39% — 61%
FY2010	101	43%	33% — 52%
FY2009	145	32%	25% — 40%
FY2008	251	28%	23% — 34%
FY2007	231	31%	25% — 37%
FY2006	291	20%	16% — 25%
FY2005	428	14%	11% — 18%
FY2004	398	22%	18% — 26%
FY2003	257	21%	17% — 27%
FY2002	228	26%	21% — 32%
FY2001	176	16%	11% — 22%
FY2000	139	17%	11% — 24%
FY1999	117	10%	6% — 17%
FY1998	115	17%	12% — 25%
FY1997	122	12%	8% — 19%
FY1996	126	17%	11% — 24%
FY1995	114	13%	8% — 21%
FY1994	164	27%	21% — 35%
FY1993	165	8%	5% — 14%
FY1992	195	11%	7% — 16%
FY1991	236	14%	10% — 19%
FY1990	360	4%	2% — 6%
FY1989	420	17%	13% — 21%
FY1988	480	12%	9% — 15%
FY1987	30	3%	1% — 17%
FY1986	112	7%	4% — 13%
FY1985	6	0%	0% — 39%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
HAITI	1,658	13%	12% — 15%
NICARAGUA	1,206	13%	11% — 15%
COLOMBIA	807	27%	24% — 30%
CUBA	586	16%	13% — 19%
VENEZUELA	314	32%	27% — 37%
PERU	156	14%	10% — 20%
GUATEMALA	137	4%	2% — 8%
EL SALVADOR	111	4%	1% — 9%
CHINA	87	44%	34% — 54%
HONDURAS	53	6%	2% — 15%
RUSSIA	40	65%	50% — 78%
UNKNOWN NATIONALITY	31	16%	7% — 33%
ARGENTINA	21	19%	8% — 40%
IRAN	18	22%	9% — 45%
ARMENIA	17	65%	41% — 83%

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.

17 mo

median

half of cases: 11—28 mo

based on 5,514 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2011	81	26 mo	12—43
FY2010	101	31 mo	19—48
FY2009	145	28 mo	21—37
FY2008	251	26 mo	17—42
FY2007	231	23 mo	14—34
FY2006	291	21 mo	15—28
FY2005	428	22 mo	14—35
FY2004	398	23 mo	17—32
FY2003	257	20 mo	15—29
FY2002	228	16 mo	11—20

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	2,350
Remand	1,379
Denied	982
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	783
Granted	429
Summary Affirmance	329
Withdrawal of Appeal	194
Other	148
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	123
Summarily Dismiss	107
Temporary Protected Status	100
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	98
Termination	84
Deferred Enforced Departure	76
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	55
Sustain	47
Terminate-DHS PD	46
Dismiss as Untimely	41
American Baptist Church Settlement	28
Background Check Remand	24
Dismiss Soriano	21
Rejection	15
Continued	11
Summary Dismissal (a) inad reason on appeal	10
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	10
Grant with no Remand	6
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)	4
Dismissed as Moot	3
Coercive Population Control	3
Other Soriano	3
Granted Soriano	2
AFD	1
Conditional Grant--CPC Asylum	1
SPECIAL NACARA CONTINUATION	1
Summary Dismissal (G) untimely or waived appeal	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.