Immigration court · Memphis, TN
Memphis Immigration Court
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 67.1 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on Memphis's bench. Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 11,643 decisions FY2015–2025 (#21 of 77).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 40.8%
- Asylum grant rate
- 59.2%
- Asylum denial rate
- 122,509
- Pending cases
- 31 mo
- Time to decision
Memphis in one line
Memphis's asylum grant rate is 40.8% (mid-band grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 11,643 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (heavy-corpus volume).
- 40.8%
- Asylum grant rate · Mid-band grant rate
- 11,643
- Merits decisions · Heavy-corpus volume
- -7.5 pp
- vs. national average
- 67.1 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · wide
What this court's record shows
Memphis Immigration Court recorded 11,643 asylum merits decisions in the FY2015–2025 EOIR extract. Its 40.8% grant rate is 7.5 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: 2.1% to 69.2% (67.1 pp) across 23 reported judges at Memphis. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.
Heavy-corpus court (#21 of 77): peer grids below match on grant rate and merits volume; methodology covers EOIR extract limits.
Court outlook score
Court outlook score
35/100
Memphis, 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 C- 40.8%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision F 31 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio F 36.8%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for Memphis
Nearest grant-rate peers for Memphis, where the 67.1 pp judge lottery is the standout bench stamp.
Memphis 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)
11,643 21st of 77 higher than 56 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 Memphis 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. Memphis's own grant rate is 40.8% and its average wait is 31.0 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
Memphis Immigration Court's merits outcome mix
11,643merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Asylum grant rate by fiscal year at Memphis Immigration Court.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2015 | 132 | 56.8% |
| FY2016 | 452 | 30.3% |
| FY2017 | 709 | 29.8% |
| FY2018 | 1,220 | 26.8% |
| FY2019 | 1,895 | 18.7% |
| FY2020 | 790 | 20.1% |
| FY2021 | 124 | 46.0% |
| FY2022 | 1,040 | 40.5% |
| FY2023 | 1,095 | 55.8% |
| FY2024 | 1,321 | 58.0% |
| FY2025 | 2,865 | 57.0% |
The judge lottery at Memphis Immigration Court
23 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 69.2% (65 decisions) down to 2.1% (47 decisions) - a 67.1-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 CMK | 65 | |
| 2 | Judge SC3 | 377 | |
| 3 | Judge BJJ | 783 | |
| 4 | Judge DDR | 855 | |
| 5 | Judge KBL | 478 | |
| 6 | Judge ACC | 855 | |
| 7 | Judge LLJ | 247 | |
| 8 | Judge LSM | 328 | |
| 9 | Judge IJN | 590 | |
| 10 | Judge CEP | 257 | |
| 11 | Judge RLH | 1,757 | |
| 12 | Judge MWK | 576 | |
| 13 | Judge RWD | 964 | |
| 14 | Judge RMH | 960 | |
| 15 | Judge RJA | 692 | |
| 16 | Judge EBS | 26 | |
| 17 | Judge KJN | 647 | |
| 18 | Judge DKT | 125 | |
| 19 | Judge LV2 | 36 | |
| 20 | Judge VBM | 573 | |
| 21 | Judge SAR | 31 | |
| 22 | Judge WAH | 31 | |
| 23 | Judge JAM | 47 | |
Nationwide courts with similar asylum profiles
Heavy-corpus peers for Memphis: ABS(grant-rate) and merits-volume matches outside the same state.
Similar grant rate (± asylum merits volume)
- Chelmsford Immigration Court · Chelmsford, MA · 41.0% grant · 2,330 merits
- New Orleans Immigration Court · New Orleans, LA · 41.5% grant · 8,667 merits
- Portland Immigration Court · Portland, OR · 42.1% grant · 1,229 merits
- Buffalo Immigration Court · Buffalo, NY · 42.3% grant · 5,018 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- San Antonio Immigration Court · San Antonio, TX · 11,574 merits · 54.6% grant
- Philadelphia Immigration Court · Philadelphia, PA · 11,412 merits · 55.2% grant
- Denver Immigration Court · Denver, CO · 11,218 merits · 54.8% grant
- Hyattsville Immigration Court · Hyattsville, MD · 11,100 merits · 54.4% grant
Why judge-level rates vary · Browse every tracked immigration court
Heavy-corpus court Memphis: 11,643 FY2015–2025 merits in DOJ EOIR FOIA data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.
Read our methodology - how Memphis's 11,643-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. Memphis 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.