Immigration court · Fort Snelling, MN
Fort Snelling Immigration Court
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 61.3 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Fort Snelling's bench. Grant rate sits mid-corpus at 37.6% (below the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 37.6%
- Asylum grant rate
- 62.4%
- Asylum denial rate
- 32,372
- Pending cases
- 29 mo
- Time to decision
Fort Snelling in one line
Fort Snelling's asylum grant rate is 37.6% (mid-band grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 8,783 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (mid-band volume).
- 37.6%
- Asylum grant rate · Mid-band grant rate
- 8,783
- Merits decisions · Mid-band volume
- -10.7 pp
- vs. national average
- 61.3 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · wide
What this court's record shows
Fort Snelling Immigration Court recorded 8,783 asylum merits decisions in the FY2015–2025 EOIR extract. Its 37.6% grant rate is 10.7 percentage points below the 48.3% national rate. That comparison describes the historical docket, not the likelihood of an outcome in a future case.
Wide judge lottery: 3.8% to 65.1% (61.3 pp) across 18 reported judges at Fort Snelling. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.
32,372 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 29 months describe administrative pressure in this snapshot. Use the peer comparisons below to place this court against similar caseloads and grant-rate profiles, then consult the methodology for the extract's scope and limits.
Court outlook score
Court outlook score
42/100
Fort Snelling, weighted across 3 of 3 tracked dimensions
A weighted composite of asylum grant rate, time to decision, and backlog ratio against the full tracked-court corpus. It describes the historical docket, not the odds of any one case, and does not weigh legal representation, case type, or judge assignment.
- Asylum grant rate D 37.6%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision D 29 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio F 19.0%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for Fort Snelling
Nearest grant-rate peers for Fort Snelling, where the 61.3 pp judge lottery is the standout bench stamp.
Fort Snelling Immigration Court vs all courts by asylum merits caseload
Where this court's FY2015–2025 asylum merits-decision count sits among every tracked immigration court (inventory signal, not a quality ranking)
8,783 29th of 77 higher than 48 of 77 courts
Immigration courts, banded by asylum merits-decision count
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more courts. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source DOJ EOIR asylum merits decisions · FY2015–2025
Where Fort Snelling sits: Fast but Tough
Each dot is one of the 40 largest immigration courts by merits decisions, split at the MEDIAN grant rate (47.5%) and median average wait (31.2 months) across this set. Fort Snelling's own grant rate is 37.6% and its average wait is 28.9 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
Fort Snelling Immigration Court's merits outcome mix
8,783merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Asylum grant rate by fiscal year at Fort Snelling Immigration Court.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2015 | 255 | 29.0% |
| FY2016 | 244 | 28.7% |
| FY2017 | 278 | 28.4% |
| FY2018 | 258 | 25.6% |
| FY2019 | 767 | 36.8% |
| FY2020 | 1,065 | 30.8% |
| FY2021 | 200 | 30.0% |
| FY2022 | 716 | 45.5% |
| FY2023 | 1,270 | 35.5% |
| FY2024 | 1,109 | 51.5% |
| FY2025 | 2,621 | 38.0% |
The judge lottery at Fort Snelling Immigration Court
18 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 65.1% (665 decisions) down to 3.8% (80 decisions) - a 61.3-point spread on the same bench. Rates based on smaller decision counts carry more statistical noise.
Judge names below are the anonymized judge codes EOIR assigns in its public case-data release, not verified public identities. EOIR does not publish immigration judges' full names in this dataset. See our methodology for detail.
| # | Judge | Decisions | Asylum grant rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Judge KLH | 665 | |
| 2 | Judge RFS | 187 | |
| 3 | Judge MAC | 1,081 | |
| 4 | Judge AKZ | 534 | |
| 5 | Judge KMI | 624 | |
| 6 | Judge BSI | 1,069 | |
| 7 | Judge KYA | 189 | |
| 8 | Judge SEC | 449 | |
| 9 | Judge RRW | 272 | |
| 10 | Judge JD | 250 | |
| 11 | Judge MMR | 1,351 | |
| 12 | Judge KWO | 330 | |
| 13 | Judge LDC | 288 | |
| 14 | Judge SM1 | 873 | |
| 15 | Judge GJW | 190 | |
| 16 | Judge JFP | 26 | |
| 17 | Judge MEC | 32 | |
| 18 | Judge WJN | 80 | |
Nationwide courts with similar asylum profiles
Cross-state peers matched on grant rate and merits caseload, not the same-state browse list.
Similar grant rate (± asylum merits volume)
- Seattle Immigration Court · Seattle, WA · 37.8% grant · 17,027 merits
- Hartford Immigration Court · Hartford, CT · 38.0% grant · 5,835 merits
- San Diego Immigration Court · San Diego, CA · 38.2% grant · 7,941 merits
- Phoenix Immigration Court · Phoenix, AZ · 38.2% grant · 7,051 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- Salt Lake City Immigration Court · West Valley City, UT · 8,831 merits · 59.3% grant
- New Orleans Immigration Court · New Orleans, LA · 8,667 merits · 41.5% grant
- Cleveland Immigration Court · Cleveland, OH · 9,432 merits · 49.7% grant
- Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court · Houston, TX · 8,052 merits · 36.1% grant
Why judge-level rates vary · Browse every tracked immigration court
Data from the DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) via FOIA bulk case data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.
Read our methodology - how Fort Snelling's 8,783-decision EOIR court row is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. EOIR, Immigration Court Statistics Immigration court outcomes by court and case type · 2025
Every figure on PlainImmigration is rendered directly from federal immigration court records, no number is typed in by an editor. Fort Snelling Immigration Court's outcome and grant-rate figures are recomputed live from the EOIR case-level extract on every request, never hand-typed. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-05.