Judge Opaciuch, John

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: October 23, 2019
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: November 29, 2019

Courts worked at: 6

Worked here before

MIAMI — IMMIGRATION COURT1989—2019 · 64,619 hearings
CONROE — IMMIGRATION COURT2018—2018 · 10 hearings
DALLAS — IMMIGRATION COURT2009—2009 · 11 hearings
NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT1985—2007 · 5,149 hearings
NAPANOCH — IMMIGRATION COURT2001—2001 · 23 hearings
LOS ANGELES — WEST LOS ANGELES IMMIGRATION COURT1996—2000 · 20 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.

12%

Asylum grant rate

of 2,824 decisions · FY1990–FY2019

95% interval: 10% — 13%

granted:: 326
denied:: 2,498

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1990–FY2019 — 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 judge12% (2,824)
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 (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
FY2019	51	4%	1% — 13%
FY2018	61	2%	0% — 9%
FY2017	75	15%	8% — 24%
FY2016	64	6%	2% — 15%
FY2015	59	3%	1% — 12%
FY2014	40	3%	0% — 13%
FY2013	83	0%	0% — 4%
FY2012	68	1%	0% — 8%
FY2011	49	29%	18% — 42%
FY2010	59	42%	31% — 55%
FY2009	110	25%	18% — 34%
FY2008	116	16%	11% — 24%
FY2007	149	28%	22% — 36%
FY2006	212	9%	6% — 14%
FY2005	357	6%	4% — 9%
FY2004	382	5%	4% — 8%
FY2003	357	15%	12% — 20%
FY2002	359	14%	11% — 18%
FY2001	169	5%	3% — 10%
FY2000	1	0%	0% — 79%
FY1997	2	0%	0% — 66%
FY1994	1	0%	0% — 79%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
HAITI	708	11%	9% — 13%
CHINA	679	10%	8% — 13%
COLOMBIA	410	11%	9% — 15%
VENEZUELA	170	18%	13% — 25%
GUATEMALA	84	1%	0% — 6%
JAMAICA	73	0%	0% — 5%
HONDURAS	70	3%	1% — 10%
CUBA	61	8%	4% — 18%
ALBANIA	50	30%	19% — 44%
MEXICO	48	6%	2% — 17%
EL SALVADOR	40	0%	0% — 9%
Former Countries	36	11%	4% — 25%
NICARAGUA	33	3%	1% — 15%
RUSSIA	27	33%	19% — 52%
PERU	22	0%	0% — 15%

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.

14 mo

median

half of cases: 9—21 mo

based on 2,824 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2019	51	4 mo	3—14
FY2018	61	4 mo	2—8
FY2017	75	4 mo	2—6
FY2016	64	4 mo	2—9
FY2015	59	5 mo	2—16
FY2014	40	7 mo	3—22
FY2013	83	9 mo	6—17
FY2012	68	6 mo	4—11
FY2011	49	15 mo	10—33
FY2010	59	28 mo	17—49

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	1,369
Denied	889
Summary Affirmance	695
Remand	465
Termination	276
Summarily Dismiss	89
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	89
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	76
Withdrawal of Appeal	63
Other	53
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	53
Terminate-DHS PD	41
Coercive Population Control	40
Background Check Remand	29
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	27
Sustain	22
Moot Bond	13
Granted	8
Temporary Protected Status	6
Grant with no Remand	5
Conditional Grant--CPC Asylum	3
American Baptist Church Settlement	1
Dismiss as Untimely	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.