Judge Weiss, Irene

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: December 30, 2009
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: December 30, 2009

Courts worked at: 14

Worked here before

LAS VEGAS — IMMIGRATION COURT1983—2009 · 36,207 hearings
SACRAMENTO — IMMIGRATION COURT1993—2009 · 6,078 hearings
ADELANTO — IMMIGRATION COURT2008—2009 · 13 hearings
HARLINGEN — IMMIGRATION COURT1989—2009 · 354 hearings
LOS FRESNOS — IMMIGRATION COURT1988—2009 · 71 hearings
PHOENIX — IMMIGRATION COURT1980—2008 · 11,569 hearings
LOS ANGELES — WEST LOS ANGELES IMMIGRATION COURT1984—2008 · 318 hearings
Orlando — IMMIGRATION COURT2004—2006 · 87 hearings
FLORENCE — IMMIGRATION COURT1984—2005 · 9,664 hearings
SAN FRANCISCO — IMMIGRATION COURT1998—2003 · 36 hearings
TUCSON — IMMIGRATION COURT1965—2001 · 1,515 hearings
ELIZABETH — IMMIGRATION COURT1993—1999 · 34 hearings
ELOY — IMMIGRATION COURT1994—1995 · 83 hearings
BOSTON — IMMIGRATION COURT1988—1995 · 24 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.

53%

Asylum grant rate

of 1,509 decisions · FY1984–FY2010

95% interval: 50% — 56%

granted:: 800
denied:: 709

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1984–FY2010 — 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 judge53% (1,509)
The whole court — LAS VEGAS — IMMIGRATION COURT36% (9,018)
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 (3): 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
FY2010	19	79%	57% — 91%
FY2009	54	65%	51% — 76%
FY2008	80	54%	43% — 64%
FY2007	71	75%	63% — 83%
FY2006	47	55%	41% — 69%
FY2005	36	56%	40% — 70%
FY2004	68	56%	44% — 67%
FY2003	64	53%	41% — 65%
FY2002	37	57%	41% — 71%
FY2001	53	57%	43% — 69%
FY2000	54	59%	46% — 71%
FY1999	61	36%	25% — 49%
FY1998	72	51%	40% — 63%
FY1997	92	57%	46% — 66%
FY1996	125	42%	34% — 51%
FY1995	88	45%	35% — 56%
FY1994	28	36%	21% — 54%
FY1993	48	40%	27% — 54%
FY1992	29	45%	28% — 62%
FY1991	67	54%	42% — 65%
FY1990	124	53%	44% — 62%
FY1989	95	54%	44% — 63%
FY1988	43	56%	41% — 70%
FY1987	41	66%	51% — 78%
FY1986	9	22%	6% — 55%
FY1985	2	0%	0% — 66%
FY1984	2	50%	9% — 91%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
EL SALVADOR	315	31%	26% — 36%
GUATEMALA	314	33%	28% — 39%
CHINA	143	77%	69% — 83%
NICARAGUA	89	71%	61% — 79%
HONDURAS	54	33%	22% — 47%
CUBA	48	65%	50% — 77%
ARMENIA	45	91%	79% — 96%
IRAN	41	61%	46% — 74%
COLOMBIA	39	62%	46% — 75%
BULGARIA	32	81%	65% — 91%
ETHIOPIA	31	74%	57% — 86%
PERU	30	70%	52% — 83%
RUSSIA	24	96%	80% — 99%
PHILIPPINES	20	45%	26% — 66%
MEXICO	20	30%	15% — 52%

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.

11 mo

median

half of cases: 7—17 mo

based on 1,509 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2009	54	18 mo	11—35
FY2008	80	13 mo	9—19
FY2007	71	21 mo	11—33
FY2006	47	10 mo	7—14
FY2005	36	12 mo	6—33
FY2004	68	10 mo	6—28
FY2003	64	8 mo	4—19
FY2002	37	12 mo	7—16
FY2001	53	10 mo	6—19
FY2000	54	12 mo	4—19

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	630
Remand	393
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	264
Denied	234
Withdrawal of Appeal	200
Summary Affirmance	157
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	145
Other	141
Temporary Protected Status	106
Sustain	106
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	80
Granted	80
Background Check Remand	54
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	45
American Baptist Church Settlement	40
Continued	34
Termination	33
Dismiss Soriano	29
Dismiss as Untimely	28
Summarily Dismiss	26
Rejection	12
Grant with no Remand	9
Dismissed as Moot	4
Administratively Closed-DHS PD	4
Granted Soriano	4
Terminate-DHS PD	4
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)	3
Moot Bond	3
Deferred Enforced Departure	3
Coercive Population Control	2
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	2
Conditional Grant--CPC Asylum	1
Other Soriano	1
Denied Soriano	1
RET	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.