HOU

Case Insights: HOU

The HOU immigration court, based in , , has processed 129,735 recorded cases in the DOJ EOIR dataset. Of those, 84,753 resulted in relief granted (65.3%), 325 were denied (0.3%), and 44,657 fell into other dispositions such as administrative closures, changes of venue, or withdrawals (34.4%). The court has 37 immigration judges on record, whose individual caseloads and outcome patterns shape the court-wide averages shown above.

Between fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2025, the grant rate at HOU rose by 3.1 percentage points, moving from 71.5% to 74.6%. That window spans 11 fiscal years of reported data, covering shifts in bench composition, policy guidance, and nationality mix. The year-by-year table lower on this page shows the underlying annual case volume for every year in the series.

Outcomes vary substantially judge-to-judge. Judge GEE has the largest recorded caseload at 14,246 decisions (69.4% grant rate). The spread between the highest-grant and lowest-grant judges at this court is 94.6 percentage points — WPK at 99.1% versus VJ3 at 4.5%. These differences reflect case mix, nationality assignments, and docket type rather than any single factor, and they are why EOIR cautions readers against treating any judge's rate as predictive of an individual case.