Immigration court · Houston, TX
Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 88.9 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Houston - S. Gessner Road's bench. Grant rate sits mid-corpus at 36.1% (below the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 36.1%
- Asylum grant rate
- 63.9%
- Asylum denial rate
- 24,598
- Pending cases
- 24 mo
- Time to decision
Houston - S. Gessner Road in one line
Houston - S. Gessner Road's asylum grant rate is 36.1% (mid-band grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 8,052 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (mid-band volume).
- 36.1%
- Asylum grant rate · Mid-band grant rate
- 8,052
- Merits decisions · Mid-band volume
- -12.2 pp
- vs. national average
- 88.9 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · wide
What this court's record shows
Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court recorded 8,052 asylum merits decisions in the FY2015–2025 EOIR extract. Its 36.1% grant rate is 12.2 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: 0.0% to 88.9% (88.9 pp) across 18 reported judges at Houston - S. Gessner Road. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.
24,598 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 24 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
47/100
Houston - S. Gessner Road, 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 D 36.1%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision C- 24 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio D 16.3%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for Houston - S. Gessner Road
Nearest grant-rate peers for Houston - S. Gessner Road, where the 88.9 pp judge lottery is the standout bench stamp.
Houston - S. Gessner Road 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)
8,052 31st of 77 higher than 46 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 Houston - S. Gessner Road sits: Fast but Tough
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. Houston - S. Gessner Road's own grant rate is 36.1% and its average wait is 24.3 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court's merits outcome mix
8,052merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Asylum grant rate by fiscal year at Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2015 | 35 | 0.0% |
| FY2016 | 34 | 0.0% |
| FY2017 | 26 | 3.8% |
| FY2018 | 22 | 9.1% |
| FY2019 | 33 | 6.1% |
| FY2020 | 365 | 17.3% |
| FY2021 | 527 | 28.5% |
| FY2022 | 1,136 | 29.2% |
| FY2023 | 1,373 | 48.1% |
| FY2024 | 1,567 | 41.2% |
| FY2025 | 2,934 | 35.7% |
The judge lottery at Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court
18 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 88.9% (27 decisions) down to 0.0% (30 decisions) - a 88.9-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 LLU | 27 | |
| 2 | Judge NES | 165 | |
| 3 | Judge GYH | 733 | |
| 4 | Judge DMP | 353 | |
| 5 | Judge AWS | 323 | |
| 6 | Judge MGC | 453 | |
| 7 | Judge JJC | 519 | |
| 8 | Judge DAJ | 876 | |
| 9 | Judge KYT | 403 | |
| 10 | Judge CMR | 575 | |
| 11 | Judge JNM | 308 | |
| 12 | Judge CDK | 239 | |
| 13 | Judge CMS | 1,001 | |
| 14 | Judge KBR | 1,150 | |
| 15 | Judge AAJ | 614 | |
| 16 | Judge MIO | 34 | |
| 17 | Judge JGC | 91 | |
| 18 | Judge KC | 30 | |
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)
- Miami Immigration Court · Miami, FL · 36.2% grant · 35,666 merits
- Kansas City Immigration Court · Kansas City, MO · 36.5% grant · 5,050 merits
- Annandale Immigration Court (Annex) · Annandale, VA · 36.9% grant · 6,174 merits
- Charlotte Immigration Court · Charlotte, NC · 35.3% grant · 12,358 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- San Diego Immigration Court · San Diego, CA · 7,941 merits · 38.2% grant
- New Orleans Immigration Court · New Orleans, LA · 8,667 merits · 41.5% grant
- Los Angeles - Van Nuys Boulevard Immigration Court · Van Nuys, CA · 7,355 merits · 62.7% grant
- Fort Snelling Immigration Court · Fort Snelling, MN · 8,783 merits · 37.6% 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 Houston - S. Gessner Road's 8,052-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. Houston - S. Gessner Road 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.