Judge Smith, Renetta

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: October 24, 2007
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: June 6, 2016

Courts worked at: 5

Worked here before

Orlando — IMMIGRATION COURT1997—2007 · 11,956 hearings
CHICAGO — IMMIGRATION COURT1993—2005 · 10,679 hearings
KANSAS CITY — IMMIGRATION COURT1998—2002 · 723 hearings
OMAHA — IMMIGRATION COURT1995—2001 · 2,047 hearings
DETROIT — IMMIGRATION COURT1991—1997 · 1,101 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.

59%

Asylum grant rate

of 1,375 decisions · FY1995–FY2007

95% interval: 56% — 61%

granted:: 805
denied:: 570

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1995–FY2007 — 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 judge59% (1,375)
The whole court — Orlando — IMMIGRATION COURT28% (29,745)
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.

Show as a table

Grant rate by fiscal year
Period	decisions	granted	95% interval
FY2007	17	82%	59% — 94%
FY2006	177	43%	36% — 50%
FY2005	102	75%	66% — 83%
FY2004	173	66%	59% — 73%
FY2003	164	65%	57% — 72%
FY2002	69	62%	51% — 73%
FY2001	104	53%	43% — 62%
FY2000	111	64%	55% — 72%
FY1999	71	49%	38% — 61%
FY1998	107	65%	56% — 74%
FY1997	122	58%	49% — 67%
FY1996	107	54%	45% — 63%
FY1995	51	27%	17% — 41%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
COLOMBIA	327	59%	54% — 64%
HAITI	165	82%	76% — 87%
GUATEMALA	86	34%	25% — 44%
Former Countries	62	47%	35% — 59%
CHINA	60	53%	41% — 65%
ALBANIA	57	39%	27% — 52%
UKRAINE	55	51%	38% — 64%
SOMALIA	43	95%	85% — 99%
VENEZUELA	39	23%	13% — 38%
RUSSIA	37	57%	41% — 71%
PAKISTAN	37	57%	41% — 71%
EL SALVADOR	33	33%	20% — 50%
IRAQ	27	96%	82% — 99%
BULGARIA	21	52%	32% — 72%
NIGERIA	17	82%	59% — 94%

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.

18 mo

median

half of cases: 8—28 mo

based on 1,375 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2006	177	32 mo	26—40
FY2005	102	29 mo	24—33
FY2004	173	22 mo	17—26
FY2003	164	14 mo	10—19
FY2002	69	17 mo	13—28
FY2001	104	19 mo	11—29
FY2000	111	16 mo	7—32
FY1999	71	20 mo	15—25
FY1998	107	17 mo	9—21
FY1997	122	9 mo	5—13

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
Remand	268
Dismiss Appeal/Affirm IJ's Decision	260
Denied	202
Summary Affirmance	111
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	103
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	49
Withdrawal of Appeal	49
Dismiss Soriano	41
Sustain	32
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	30
Other	28
Granted	25
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	22
Termination	18
Dismiss as Untimely	15
Summarily Dismiss	11
Temporary Protected Status	11
Background Check Remand	10
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	5
Rejection	4
Grant with no Remand	4
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)	3
Moot Bond	3
Summary Dismissal (a) inad reason on appeal	3
Granted Soriano	2
Other Soriano	2
Denied Soriano	2
Continued	2
—	1
Terminate-DHS PD	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.