Courts → Harlingen, TX

Immigration court · Harlingen, TX

Harlingen Immigration Court

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 75.1 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Harlingen's bench. Grant rate sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 49.5% (roughly in line with the 48.3% national average).

Data updated 2026-09-05

49.5%
Asylum grant rate
50.5%
Asylum denial rate
4,840
Pending cases
22 mo
Time to decision

Harlingen in one line

Harlingen's asylum grant rate is 49.5% (upper-third grant rate, roughly in line with the 48.3% national average) across 4,776 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (thin-corpus volume).

49.5%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
4,776
Merits decisions · Thin-corpus volume
+1.2 pp
vs. national average
75.1 pp
Judge-level grant spread · wide
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What this court's record shows

Harlingen Immigration Court sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 49.5% across 4,776 FY2015–2025 merits (1.2 pp roughly in line with the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.

Wide judge lottery: 19.7% to 94.8% (75.1 pp) across 27 reported judges at Harlingen. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.

4,840 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 22 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

B

Court outlook score

70/100

Harlingen, 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 49.5%

    Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025

  • Time to decision C 22 mo

    Average recorded months from filing to decision

  • Backlog ratio B 1.3%

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

EOIR bench spread roll

Grant-rate neighbourhood for Harlingen

Upper-third grant-rate neighbors for Harlingen (49.5%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.

SPREAD 75.1pp WIDE JUDGES 27 WAIT MID PEND 4,840 GRANT 49.5% RANK #52 of 77
Harlingen49.5%Imperial, CA49.7%Cleveland, OH49.7%Newark, NJ48.9%Sterling, VA48.8%
Asylum grant rate · Harlingen highlighted · DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025

Harlingen 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)

4,776 52nd of 77 higher than 25 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 Harlingen sits: Fast & Favorable

Each dot is one of the 41 largest immigration courts by merits decisions, split at the MEDIAN grant rate (47.6%) and median average wait (31.0 months) across this set. Harlingen's own grant rate is 49.5% and its average wait is 22.1 months.

Grant rate vs. average wait time, 41 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). Harlingen 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) Harlingen Immigration Court: grant rate vs. average wait among the largest immigration courts
Grant rate vs. average wait time, 41 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). Harlingen highlighted.

How to read this

  • Fast & Favorable
  • Favorable but Slow
  • Fast but Tough
  • Slow & Tough
Statistical data only. Harlingen's 49.5% 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.
Granted2363Denied2413
Asylum Outcomes at Harlingen Immigration Court - 4,776 merits decisions, FY2015–2025

Grant rate over time

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

Fiscal year Decisions Grant rate
FY2015 170 81.2%
FY2016 261 88.1%
FY2017 340 84.4%
FY2018 182 44.0%
FY2019 269 37.2%
FY2020 1,515 27.1%
FY2021 468 67.3%
FY2022 631 42.2%
FY2023 331 55.3%
FY2024 269 58.0%
FY2025 340 58.2%

The judge lottery at Harlingen Immigration Court

27 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 94.8% (58 decisions) down to 19.7% (183 decisions) - a 75.1-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 ET 58
94.8%
2 Judge HEA 432
70.6%
3 Judge DA 304
69.4%
4 Judge BC2 86
64.0%
5 Judge FTP 151
63.6%
6 Judge SC3 175
62.9%
7 Judge CB1 108
58.3%
8 Judge MJG 170
57.6%
9 Judge CRP 40
57.5%
10 Judge JTL 418
57.2%
11 Judge JBE 49
57.1%
12 Judge DIG 612
54.2%
13 Judge JNC 386
51.0%
14 Judge MKB 139
47.5%
15 Judge DGT 61
42.6%
16 Judge WLA 40
42.5%
17 Judge PHE 83
37.3%
18 Judge KFL 92
35.9%
19 Judge BLH 48
35.4%
20 Judge DHF 216
30.6%
21 Judge SME 124
29.0%
22 Judge JAM 64
28.1%
23 Judge MIO 101
25.7%
24 Judge JGC 202
24.8%
25 Judge MTG 146
23.3%
26 Judge MUN 93
22.6%
27 Judge SSL 183
19.7%

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)

Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)

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 Harlingen's 4,776-decision EOIR court row is sourced, computed, and verified.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for Harlingen Immigration Court; judge grant-rate spread 75.1 pp. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is thin-corpus at 4,776 decisions FY2015–2025.

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. Harlingen 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.