Judge Speer, John K.

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: July 24, 2007
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: July 24, 2007

Courts worked at: 3

Worked here before

NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT1961—2007 · 28,172 hearings
NEWARK — IMMIGRATION COURT1971—1999 · 8,952 hearings
NAPANOCH — IMMIGRATION COURT1987—1991 · 70 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.

21%

Asylum grant rate

of 2,182 decisions · FY1969–FY1999

95% interval: 19% — 23%

granted:: 458
denied:: 1,724

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1969–FY1999 — 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 judge21% (2,182)
The whole court — NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT57% (230,016)
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 (4): 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
FY1999	177	15%	11% — 21%
FY1998	192	24%	19% — 31%
FY1997	165	13%	9% — 19%
FY1996	168	7%	4% — 11%
FY1995	270	9%	6% — 12%
FY1994	291	4%	2% — 7%
FY1993	206	28%	22% — 34%
FY1992	165	48%	40% — 55%
FY1991	95	51%	41% — 60%
FY1990	114	36%	28% — 45%
FY1989	61	33%	22% — 45%
FY1988	102	41%	32% — 51%
FY1987	124	19%	13% — 27%
FY1986	31	10%	3% — 25%
FY1985	8	0%	0% — 32%
FY1984	5	0%	0% — 43%
FY1983	1	0%	0% — 79%
FY1982	7	29%	8% — 64%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
CHINA	810	6%	5% — 8%
AFGHANISTAN	260	83%	78% — 87%
EL SALVADOR	203	2%	1% — 6%
INDIA	135	5%	3% — 10%
Former Countries	102	43%	34% — 53%
PAKISTAN	98	6%	3% — 13%
BANGLADESH	62	2%	0% — 9%
MAURITANIA	49	10%	4% — 22%
NICARAGUA	45	11%	5% — 23%
GHANA	41	27%	16% — 42%
HAITI	29	0%	0% — 12%
GUATEMALA	27	4%	1% — 18%
ALBANIA	20	30%	15% — 52%
NO NATIONALITY	20	50%	30% — 70%
POLAND	18	22%	9% — 45%

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.

19 mo

median

half of cases: 13—28 mo

based on 2,182 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY1999	177	17 mo	11—28
FY1998	192	13 mo	12—20
FY1997	165	11 mo	10—28
FY1996	168	25 mo	18—35
FY1995	270	25 mo	19—30
FY1994	291	21 mo	18—25
FY1993	206	21 mo	17—28
FY1992	165	16 mo	13—21
FY1991	95	18 mo	14—26
FY1990	114	15 mo	12—17

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	858
Remand	539
Denied	392
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	252
Granted	164
Sustain	123
Termination	109
Temporary Protected Status	98
Withdrawal of Appeal	96
Other	89
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	47
Coercive Population Control	44
Summary Affirmance	37
Dismiss Soriano	31
Continued	16
Dismiss as Untimely	15
Summarily Dismiss	14
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	11
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)	10
American Baptist Church Settlement	9
Granted Soriano	9
Deferred Enforced Departure	8
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	7
Terminate-DHS PD	5
Rejection	5
Conditional Grant--CPC Asylum	4
Denied Soriano	3
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	2
Summary Dismissal (a) inad reason on appeal	2
Grant with no Remand	1
Background Check Remand	1
Summary Dismissal (o) Other	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.