SMO

Case Insights: SMO

The SMO immigration court, based in , , has processed 21,659 recorded cases in the DOJ EOIR dataset. Of those, 16,157 resulted in relief granted (74.6%), 336 were denied (1.6%), and 5,166 fell into other dispositions such as administrative closures, changes of venue, or withdrawals (23.9%). The court has 15 immigration judges on record, whose individual caseloads and outcome patterns shape the court-wide averages shown above.

Between fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2025, the grant rate at SMO rose by 30.6 percentage points, moving from 57.1% to 87.7%. That window spans 11 fiscal years of reported data, covering shifts in bench composition, policy guidance, and nationality mix. The year-by-year table lower on this page shows the underlying annual case volume for every year in the series.

Outcomes vary substantially judge-to-judge. Judge SPN has the largest recorded caseload at 2,826 decisions (82.8% grant rate). The spread between the highest-grant and lowest-grant judges at this court is 47.6 percentage points — CPH at 96.7% versus SNM at 49.1%. These differences reflect case mix, nationality assignments, and docket type rather than any single factor, and they are why EOIR cautions readers against treating any judge's rate as predictive of an individual case.