Immigration court · San Diego, CA
Otay Mesa Immigration Court
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: 3 mo average time-to-decision is a short-wait stamp on Otay Mesa's docket. Grant rate sits in the lower third of tracked courts at 32.4% (below the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 32.4%
- Asylum grant rate
- 67.6%
- Asylum denial rate
- 646
- Pending cases
- 3 mo
- Time to decision
Partial window:Since FY2017 Otay Mesa Immigration Court has recorded asylum decisions in FY2017–2025 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.
Otay Mesa in one line
Otay Mesa's asylum grant rate is 32.4% (lower-third grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 2,559 FY2017–2025 merits decisions (thin-corpus volume).
- 32.4%
- Asylum grant rate · Lower-third grant rate
- 2,559
- Merits decisions · Thin-corpus volume
- -15.9 pp
- vs. national average
- 20.3 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · mixed
What this court's record shows
Otay Mesa Immigration Court sits in the lower third of tracked courts at 32.4% across 2,559 FY2017–2025 merits (15.9 pp below the 48.3% national average). Historical docket context only.
The recorded judge-level range spans 18.5% to 38.8%, a 20.3-point spread across 15 reported judges. Different case mixes, decision volumes, and assignments can all affect a court-level aggregate, so the range is context rather than a prediction.
646 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 3 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
64/100
Otay Mesa, 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 F 32.4%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision A+ 3 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio B 1.5%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for Otay Mesa
Lower-third grant-rate neighbors for Otay Mesa (32.4%), with bench-spread stamps for the same-docket judge lottery.
Otay Mesa 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)
2,559 63rd of 77 higher than 14 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 Otay Mesa sits: Fast but Tough
Each dot is one of the 41 largest immigration courts by merits decisions, split at the MEDIAN grant rate (47.5%) and median average wait (31.0 months) across this set. Otay Mesa's own grant rate is 32.4% and its average wait is 3.4 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
Otay Mesa Immigration Court's merits outcome mix
2,559merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Lower-third court Otay Mesa: fiscal-year grant path across FY2017–2025 merits.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | 54 | 22.2% |
| FY2018 | 378 | 19.0% |
| FY2019 | 468 | 32.9% |
| FY2020 | 323 | 46.7% |
| FY2021 | 129 | 27.1% |
| FY2022 | 84 | 38.1% |
| FY2023 | 162 | 37.0% |
| FY2024 | 328 | 23.5% |
| FY2025 | 633 | 37.3% |
The judge lottery at Otay Mesa Immigration Court
15 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 38.8% (299 decisions) down to 18.5% (54 decisions) - a 20.3-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 VABSince FY2019 | 299 | |
| 2 | Judge BARFY2017–22 only | 26 | |
| 3 | Judge AANFY2020–23 only | 79 | |
| 4 | Judge APA | 306 | |
| 5 | Judge MSTSince FY2018 | 357 | |
| 6 | Judge SABFY2021–22 only | 28 | |
| 7 | Judge EHRSince FY2019 | 300 | |
| 8 | Judge PADSince FY2024 | 140 | |
| 9 | Judge PSLFY2020–22 only | 32 | |
| 10 | Judge ZZDFY2017–19 only | 126 | |
| 11 | Judge GGGSince FY2020 | 73 | |
| 12 | Judge OEAFY2017–22 only | 167 | |
| 13 | Judge CHRFY2017–21 only | 289 | |
| 14 | Judge SS2FY2017–21 only | 143 | |
| 15 | Judge MHHSince FY2023 | 54 | |
Nationwide courts with similar asylum profiles
Lower-third grant-rate peers for Otay Mesa, plus caseload matches on a second axis.
Similar grant rate (± asylum merits volume)
- Eloy Immigration Court · Eloy, AZ · 32.0% grant · 3,884 merits
- Houston - Greenspoint Park Immigration Court · Houston, TX · 33.9% grant · 13,837 merits
- Tucson Immigration Court · Tucson, AZ · 29.9% grant · 3,195 merits
- Aurora Immigration Court · Aurora, CO · 29.5% grant · 2,888 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- Chelmsford Immigration Court · Chelmsford, MA · 2,330 merits · 41.0% grant
- El Paso Service Processing Center Immigration Court · El Paso, TX · 2,258 merits · 17.0% grant
- Honolulu Immigration Court · Honolulu, HI · 2,117 merits · 64.1% grant
- Indianapolis Immigration Court · Indianapolis, IN · 1,967 merits · 26.8% grant
How immigration court proceedings work · Browse every tracked immigration court
Lower-third grant-rate court Otay Mesa (32.4%) in DOJ EOIR FOIA data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.
Read our methodology - how Otay Mesa's 2,559-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. Otay Mesa 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.