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
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 FY2015-2025 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 FY2015–2025 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 FY2015–2025 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 VAB | 299 | |
| 2 | Judge BAR | 26 | |
| 3 | Judge AAN | 79 | |
| 4 | Judge APA | 306 | |
| 5 | Judge MST | 357 | |
| 6 | Judge SAB | 28 | |
| 7 | Judge EHR | 300 | |
| 8 | Judge PAD | 140 | |
| 9 | Judge PSL | 32 | |
| 10 | Judge ZZD | 126 | |
| 11 | Judge GGG | 73 | |
| 12 | Judge OEA | 167 | |
| 13 | Judge CHR | 289 | |
| 14 | Judge SS2 | 143 | |
| 15 | Judge MHH | 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.