Immigration court · Chelmsford, MA
Chelmsford Immigration Court (Detained)
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 69.9 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Chelmsford's bench. Grant rate sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 53.3% (above the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 53.3%
- Asylum grant rate
- 46.7%
- Asylum denial rate
- 10
- Pending cases
- 39 mo
- Time to decision
Partial window:Since FY2024 Chelmsford Immigration Court (Detained) has recorded asylum decisions in FY2024–2025 only (years with fewer than 10 decisions are not counted), so the grant rate, case count and wait above cover that span, not all of FY2015–2025. The rankings mark it the same way. The year-by-year record is in the trend table below.
Chelmsford in one line
Chelmsford's asylum grant rate is 53.3% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 942 FY2024–2025 merits decisions (thin-corpus volume).
- 53.3%
- Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
- 942
- Merits decisions · Thin-corpus volume
- +5.0 pp
- vs. national average
- 69.9 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · wide
What this court's record shows
Chelmsford Immigration Court (Detained) sits in the upper third of tracked courts at 53.3% across 942 FY2024–2025 merits (5.0 pp above the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.
Wide judge lottery: 23.6% to 93.5% (69.9 pp) across 15 reported judges at Chelmsford. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.
Long-wait docket: 10 pending and 39 mo average recorded wait. Peer grids below place Chelmsford on grant-rate and caseload axes; methodology covers extract limits.
Court outlook score
Court outlook score
64/100
Chelmsford, 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- 53.3%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision F 39 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio A+ 0.1%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for Chelmsford
Upper-third grant-rate neighbors for Chelmsford (53.3%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.
Chelmsford Immigration Court (Detained) 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)
942 71st of 77 higher than 6 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 Chelmsford sits: Favorable but Slow
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 (31.4 months) across this set. Chelmsford's own grant rate is 53.3% and its average wait is 39.2 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
Chelmsford Immigration Court (Detained)'s merits outcome mix
942merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Upper-third court Chelmsford: fiscal-year grant path across FY2024–2025 merits.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | 2 | 100.0% |
| FY2024 | 774 | 53.9% |
| FY2025 | 166 | 50.0% |
The judge lottery at Chelmsford Immigration Court (Detained)
15 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 93.5% (31 decisions) down to 23.6% (89 decisions) - a 69.9-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 NIFSince FY2024 | 31 | |
| 2 | Judge AMS | 26 | |
| 3 | Judge SAASince FY2024 | 101 | |
| 4 | Judge JBYSince FY2024 | 69 | |
| 5 | Judge AMOSince FY2024 | 71 | |
| 6 | Judge JAZSince FY2024 | 34 | |
| 7 | Judge NYGSince FY2024 | 36 | |
| 8 | Judge DDOSince FY2024 | 34 | |
| 9 | Judge JMWSince FY2024 | 59 | |
| 10 | Judge NSMSince FY2024 | 42 | |
| 11 | Judge GEPSince FY2024 | 100 | |
| 12 | Judge LSYSince FY2024 | 92 | |
| 13 | Judge HAKSince FY2024 | 103 | |
| 14 | Judge JAHSince FY2024 | 42 | |
| 15 | Judge YMCSince FY2024 | 89 | |
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)
- Baltimore Immigration Court · Baltimore, MD · 52.8% grant · 16,562 merits
- New York - Broadway Immigration Court · New York, NY · 52.5% grant · 28,250 merits
- Hyattsville Immigration Court · Hyattsville, MD · 54.4% grant · 11,100 merits
- San Antonio Immigration Court · San Antonio, TX · 54.6% grant · 11,574 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- Port Isabel Immigration Court (Detained) · Los Fresnos, TX · 789 merits · 12.8% grant
- Atlanta - Ted Turner Drive Immigration Court · Atlanta, GA · 1,165 merits · 14.7% grant
- Portland Immigration Court · Portland, OR · 1,229 merits · 42.1% grant
- Florence Immigration Court · Florence, AZ · 1,821 merits · 23.0% 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 Chelmsford's 942-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. Chelmsford Immigration Court (Detained)'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.