Courts → Boston, MA

Immigration court · Boston, MA

Boston Immigration Court

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 85.7 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Boston's bench. Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 19,472 decisions FY2015–2025 (#8 of 77).

Data updated 2026-09-05

52.7%
Asylum grant rate
47.3%
Asylum denial rate
83,713
Pending cases
38 mo
Time to decision

Boston in one line

Boston's asylum grant rate is 52.7% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 19,472 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (heavy-corpus volume).

52.7%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
19,472
Merits decisions · Heavy-corpus volume
+4.4 pp
vs. national average
85.7 pp
Judge-level grant spread · wide
View watchlist

What this court's record shows

Boston Immigration Court sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 52.7% across 19,472 FY2015–2025 merits (4.4 pp above the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.

Wide judge lottery: 2.9% to 88.6% (85.7 pp) across 48 reported judges at Boston. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.

Long-wait docket: 83,713 pending and 38 mo average recorded wait. Peer grids below place Boston on grant-rate and caseload axes; methodology covers extract limits.

Court outlook score

D

Court outlook score

44/100

Boston, 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 B+ 52.7%

    Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025

  • Time to decision F 38 mo

    Average recorded months from filing to decision

  • Backlog ratio F 23.3%

    Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload

EOIR bench spread roll

Grant-rate neighbourhood for Boston

Upper-third grant-rate neighbors for Boston (52.7%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.

SPREAD 85.7pp WIDE JUDGES 48 WAIT LONG PEND 83,713 GRANT 52.7% RANK #8 of 77
Boston52.7%Baltimore, MD52.8%New York, NY52.5%Annandale, VA51.4%Hyattsville, MD54.4%
Asylum grant rate · Boston highlighted · DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025

Boston 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)

19,472 8th of 77 higher than 69 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 Boston sits: Favorable but Slow

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. Boston's own grant rate is 52.7% and its average wait is 38.0 months.

Grant rate vs. average wait time, 40 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). Boston highlighted. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 30 entities by Asylum grant rate (X) and Average wait (months) (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. Favorable but SlowSlow & ToughFast & FavorableFast but Tough 20%40%60%80% 10mo20mo30mo40mo50mo Asylum grant rate Average wait (months) Boston Immigration Court: grant rate vs. average wait among the largest immigration courts
Grant rate vs. average wait time, 40 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). Boston highlighted.

How to read this

  • Fast & Favorable
  • Favorable but Slow
  • Fast but Tough
  • Slow & Tough
Statistical data only. Boston's 52.7% upper-third grant history still mixes judges, case types, and counsel rates, not a forecast for a future merits hearing. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.
Granted10270Denied9202
Asylum Outcomes at Boston Immigration Court - 19,472 merits decisions, FY2015–2025

Grant rate over time

Upper-third court Boston: fiscal-year grant path across FY2015–2025 merits.

Fiscal year Decisions Grant rate
FY2015 304 75.0%
FY2016 349 77.9%
FY2017 632 65.0%
FY2018 746 57.2%
FY2019 1,433 48.6%
FY2020 1,440 53.1%
FY2021 797 62.4%
FY2022 2,265 58.4%
FY2023 4,113 46.8%
FY2024 3,469 49.1%
FY2025 3,924 51.6%

The judge lottery at Boston Immigration Court

48 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 88.6% (140 decisions) down to 2.9% (68 decisions) - a 85.7-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 SAA 140
88.6%
2 Judge MOS 1,922
84.6%
3 Judge LIS 58
84.5%
4 Judge REF 788
71.8%
5 Judge SVA 106
69.8%
6 Judge OMB 1,897
67.8%
7 Judge SDS 31
67.7%
8 Judge PMG 224
64.7%
9 Judge JMW 88
63.6%
10 Judge MDD 661
62.8%
11 Judge ERG 644
62.6%
12 Judge MRM 141
62.4%
13 Judge MBH 25
60.0%
14 Judge MIS 303
58.7%
15 Judge TRA 60
58.3%
16 Judge MJD 412
57.8%
17 Judge SHC 1,432
50.6%
18 Judge RLP 681
50.1%
19 Judge GET 854
50.0%
20 Judge LSJ 288
49.0%
21 Judge MJS 2,034
45.9%
22 Judge WTN 150
45.3%
23 Judge RDC 145
44.8%
24 Judge JAH 85
44.7%
25 Judge JPI 50
44.0%
26 Judge LSA 50
42.0%
27 Judge JAL 94
41.5%
28 Judge MEK 1,073
40.4%
29 Judge THS 65
40.0%
30 Judge TAM 1,312
39.6%
31 Judge ANE 270
38.9%
32 Judge LSY 332
38.0%
33 Judge JMF 840
37.1%
34 Judge HAK 293
35.5%
35 Judge NYG 68
33.8%
36 Judge AMO 249
33.3%
37 Judge JS1 92
32.6%
38 Judge JBT 253
32.4%
39 Judge DDO 84
31.0%
40 Judge NSM 126
27.0%
41 Judge GEP 126
27.0%
42 Judge SFD 41
24.4%
43 Judge JRM 114
18.4%
44 Judge SSL 38
13.2%
45 Judge YMC 130
13.1%
46 Judge JAZ 195
12.3%
47 Judge DRN 140
10.0%
48 Judge ZRA 68
2.9%

Nationwide courts with similar asylum profiles

Heavy-corpus peers for Boston: ABS(grant-rate) and merits-volume matches outside the same state.

Similar grant rate (± asylum merits volume)

Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)

Why judge-level rates vary · Browse every tracked immigration court

Heavy-corpus court Boston: 19,472 FY2015–2025 merits in DOJ EOIR FOIA data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.

Read our methodology - how Boston's 19,472-decision EOIR court row is sourced, computed, and verified.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for Boston Immigration Court; judge grant-rate spread 85.7 pp. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 19,472 decisions FY2015–2025 (#8 of 77).

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. Boston 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.