Immigration court · New Orleans, LA
New Orleans Immigration Court
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 62.0 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on New Orleans's bench. Grant rate sits mid-corpus at 41.5% (below the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 41.5%
- Asylum grant rate
- 58.5%
- Asylum denial rate
- 13,556
- Pending cases
- 33 mo
- Time to decision
New Orleans in one line
New Orleans's asylum grant rate is 41.5% (mid-band grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 8,667 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (mid-band volume).
- 41.5%
- Asylum grant rate · Mid-band grant rate
- 8,667
- Merits decisions · Mid-band volume
- -6.8 pp
- vs. national average
- 62.0 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · wide
What this court's record shows
New Orleans Immigration Court recorded 8,667 asylum merits decisions in the FY2015–2025 EOIR extract. Its 41.5% grant rate is 6.8 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: 1.8% to 63.8% (62.0 pp) across 14 reported judges at New Orleans. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.
13,556 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 33 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
48/100
New Orleans, 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 41.5%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision F 33 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio C 8.2%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for New Orleans
Nearest grant-rate peers for New Orleans, where the 62.0 pp judge lottery is the standout bench stamp.
New Orleans 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)
8,667 30th of 77 higher than 47 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 New Orleans sits: Slow & 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. New Orleans's own grant rate is 41.5% and its average wait is 32.9 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
New Orleans Immigration Court's merits outcome mix
8,667merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Asylum grant rate by fiscal year at New Orleans Immigration Court.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2015 | 83 | 45.8% |
| FY2016 | 134 | 38.8% |
| FY2017 | 196 | 39.3% |
| FY2018 | 698 | 24.4% |
| FY2019 | 818 | 23.2% |
| FY2020 | 718 | 19.9% |
| FY2021 | 713 | 23.0% |
| FY2022 | 754 | 34.1% |
| FY2023 | 707 | 61.5% |
| FY2024 | 1,533 | 62.1% |
| FY2025 | 2,313 | 48.5% |
The judge lottery at New Orleans Immigration Court
14 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 63.8% (207 decisions) down to 1.8% (56 decisions) - a 62.0-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 JLJ | 207 | |
| 2 | Judge GDJ | 535 | |
| 3 | Judge MRJ | 174 | |
| 4 | Judge ALD | 322 | |
| 5 | Judge MMA | 38 | |
| 6 | Judge RCH | 34 | |
| 7 | Judge KPG | 687 | |
| 8 | Judge EM2 | 1,599 | |
| 9 | Judge JBL | 2,506 | |
| 10 | Judge CM1 | 1,767 | |
| 11 | Judge LFZ | 102 | |
| 12 | Judge RLF | 182 | |
| 13 | Judge SJC | 230 | |
| 14 | Judge CLF | 56 | |
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)
- Chelmsford Immigration Court · Chelmsford, MA · 41.0% grant · 2,330 merits
- Portland Immigration Court · Portland, OR · 42.1% grant · 1,229 merits
- Memphis Immigration Court · Memphis, TN · 40.8% grant · 11,643 merits
- Buffalo Immigration Court · Buffalo, NY · 42.3% grant · 5,018 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- Fort Snelling Immigration Court · Fort Snelling, MN · 8,783 merits · 37.6% grant
- Salt Lake City Immigration Court · West Valley City, UT · 8,831 merits · 59.3% grant
- Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court · Houston, TX · 8,052 merits · 36.1% grant
- San Diego Immigration Court · San Diego, CA · 7,941 merits · 38.2% 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 New Orleans's 8,667-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. New Orleans 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.