Immigration court · Buffalo, NY
Buffalo Immigration Court
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 47.9 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Buffalo's bench. Grant rate sits mid-corpus at 42.3% (below the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 42.3%
- Asylum grant rate
- 57.7%
- Asylum denial rate
- 9,041
- Pending cases
- 17 mo
- Time to decision
Buffalo in one line
Buffalo's asylum grant rate is 42.3% (mid-band grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 5,018 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (mid-band volume).
- 42.3%
- Asylum grant rate · Mid-band grant rate
- 5,018
- Merits decisions · Mid-band volume
- -6.0 pp
- vs. national average
- 47.9 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · wide
What this court's record shows
Buffalo Immigration Court recorded 5,018 asylum merits decisions in the FY2015–2025 EOIR extract. Its 42.3% grant rate is 6.0 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: 9.1% to 57.0% (47.9 pp) across 12 reported judges at Buffalo. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.
9,041 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 17 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
63/100
Buffalo, 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 C 42.3%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision B- 17 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio C+ 6.1%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for Buffalo
Nearest grant-rate peers for Buffalo, where the 47.9 pp judge lottery is the standout bench stamp.
Buffalo 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)
5,018 50th of 77 higher than 27 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 Buffalo sits: Fast but Tough
Each dot is one of the 41 largest immigration courts by merits decisions, split at the MEDIAN grant rate (47.5%) and median average wait (31.0 months) across this set. Buffalo's own grant rate is 42.3% and its average wait is 17.0 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
Buffalo Immigration Court's merits outcome mix
5,018merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Asylum grant rate by fiscal year at Buffalo Immigration Court.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2015 | 100 | 22.0% |
| FY2016 | 109 | 26.6% |
| FY2017 | 187 | 38.0% |
| FY2018 | 285 | 28.8% |
| FY2019 | 479 | 33.4% |
| FY2020 | 435 | 32.2% |
| FY2021 | 358 | 36.6% |
| FY2022 | 466 | 53.2% |
| FY2023 | 461 | 51.8% |
| FY2024 | 893 | 45.0% |
| FY2025 | 1,245 | 48.2% |
The judge lottery at Buffalo Immigration Court
12 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 57.0% (279 decisions) down to 9.1% (66 decisions) - a 47.9-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 BIL | 279 | |
| 2 | Judge DHO | 904 | |
| 3 | Judge WRU | 1,499 | |
| 4 | Judge SJC | 683 | |
| 5 | Judge KBJ | 716 | |
| 6 | Judge JMN | 32 | |
| 7 | Judge RTD | 205 | |
| 8 | Judge PJM | 147 | |
| 9 | Judge JBR | 142 | |
| 10 | Judge ECS | 116 | |
| 11 | Judge SFA | 141 | |
| 12 | Judge BRC | 66 | |
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)
- Portland Immigration Court · Portland, OR · 42.1% grant · 1,229 merits
- Detroit Immigration Court · Detroit, MI · 42.5% grant · 6,017 merits
- New Orleans Immigration Court · New Orleans, LA · 41.5% grant · 8,667 merits
- Chelmsford Immigration Court · Chelmsford, MA · 41.0% grant · 2,330 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- Portland Immigration Court (Detained) · Portland, OR · 4,996 merits · 43.7% grant
- Kansas City Immigration Court · Kansas City, MO · 5,050 merits · 36.5% grant
- Adelanto Immigration Court · Adelanto, CA · 5,079 merits · 20.6% grant
- El Paso Immigration Court · El Paso, TX · 5,113 merits · 50.0% 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 Buffalo's 5,018-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. Buffalo 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.