Courts → Honolulu, HI

Immigration court · Honolulu, HI

Honolulu Immigration Court

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: Honolulu's 64.1% grant rate is among the highest in the tracked court corpus. Grant rate sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 64.1% (above the 48.3% national average).

Data updated 2026-09-05

64.1%
Asylum grant rate
35.9%
Asylum denial rate
1,415
Pending cases
21 mo
Time to decision

Honolulu in one line

Honolulu's asylum grant rate is 64.1% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 2,117 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (thin-corpus volume).

64.1%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
2,117
Merits decisions · Thin-corpus volume
+15.8 pp
vs. national average
34.1 pp
Judge-level grant spread · wide
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What this court's record shows

Honolulu Immigration Court sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 64.1% across 2,117 FY2015–2025 merits (15.8 pp above the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.

Wide judge lottery: 34.3% to 68.4% (34.1 pp) across 4 reported judges at Honolulu. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.

1,415 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 21 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

74/100

Honolulu, 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 A+ 64.1%

    Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025

  • Time to decision C+ 21 mo

    Average recorded months from filing to decision

  • Backlog ratio C+ 6.6%

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

EOIR bench spread roll

Grant-rate neighbourhood for Honolulu

Upper-third grant-rate neighbors for Honolulu (64.1%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.

SPREAD 34.1pp WIDE JUDGES 4 WAIT MID PEND 1,415 GRANT 64.1% RANK #66 of 77
Honolulu64.1%Van Nuys, CA62.7%Chicago, IL61.3%Concord, CA68.1%West Valley City, UT59.3%
Asylum grant rate · Honolulu highlighted · DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025

Honolulu 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)

2,117 66th of 77 higher than 11 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 Honolulu 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. Honolulu's own grant rate is 64.1% and its average wait is 21.4 months.

Grant rate vs. average wait time, 41 largest courts by merits decisions (DOJ EOIR FY2015–2025). Honolulu 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) Honolulu 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). Honolulu highlighted.

How to read this

  • Fast & Favorable
  • Favorable but Slow
  • Fast but Tough
  • Slow & Tough
Statistical data only. Honolulu's 64.1% 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.
Granted1356Denied761
Asylum Outcomes at Honolulu Immigration Court - 2,117 merits decisions, FY2015–2025

Grant rate over time

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

Fiscal year Decisions Grant rate
FY2015 200 84.5%
FY2016 261 82.4%
FY2017 257 78.6%
FY2018 391 59.3%
FY2019 372 42.7%
FY2020 120 45.8%
FY2021 58 63.8%
FY2022 90 45.6%
FY2023 66 69.7%
FY2024 133 68.4%
FY2025 169 64.5%

The judge lottery at Honolulu Immigration Court

4 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 68.4% (832 decisions) down to 34.3% (70 decisions) - a 34.1-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 CMW 832
68.4%
2 Judge DMB 1,066
63.4%
3 Judge REF 139
58.3%
4 Judge JCL 70
34.3%

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.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for Honolulu Immigration Court; asylum grant rate 64.1%. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is thin-corpus at 2,117 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. Honolulu 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.