Immigration court · San Diego, CA
San Diego Immigration Court
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: a 66.4 pp judge-level grant spread is the widest lottery stamp on San Diego's bench. Grant rate sits mid-corpus at 38.2% (below the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 38.2%
- Asylum grant rate
- 61.8%
- Asylum denial rate
- 4,733
- Pending cases
- 17 mo
- Time to decision
San Diego in one line
San Diego's asylum grant rate is 38.2% (mid-band grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 7,941 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (mid-band volume).
- 38.2%
- Asylum grant rate · Mid-band grant rate
- 7,941
- Merits decisions · Mid-band volume
- -10.1 pp
- vs. national average
- 66.4 pp
- Judge-level grant spread · wide
What this court's record shows
San Diego Immigration Court recorded 7,941 asylum merits decisions in the FY2015–2025 EOIR extract. Its 38.2% grant rate is 10.1 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: 10.3% to 76.7% (66.4 pp) across 24 reported judges at San Diego. Case mix and assignment still shape the court aggregate.
4,733 pending cases and an average recorded wait of 17 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
62/100
San Diego, 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 D 38.2%
Share of merits decisions granting relief, FY2015-2025
- Time to decision B- 17 mo
Average recorded months from filing to decision
- Backlog ratio B 1.4%
Pending cases as a share of the court's own total caseload
EOIR bench spread roll
Grant-rate neighbourhood for San Diego
Nearest grant-rate peers for San Diego, where the 66.4 pp judge lottery is the standout bench stamp.
San Diego 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)
7,941 32nd of 77 higher than 45 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 San Diego 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. San Diego's own grant rate is 38.2% and its average wait is 16.8 months.
How to read this
- Fast & Favorable
- Favorable but Slow
- Fast but Tough
- Slow & Tough
San Diego Immigration Court's merits outcome mix
7,941merits decisions FY2015–2025
Grant rate over time
Asylum grant rate by fiscal year at San Diego Immigration Court.
| Fiscal year | Decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| FY2015 | 271 | 38.7% |
| FY2016 | 251 | 37.8% |
| FY2017 | 425 | 29.4% |
| FY2018 | 816 | 20.1% |
| FY2019 | 1,045 | 15.4% |
| FY2020 | 1,248 | 17.9% |
| FY2021 | 377 | 49.9% |
| FY2022 | 729 | 56.5% |
| FY2023 | 847 | 63.0% |
| FY2024 | 662 | 62.4% |
| FY2025 | 1,270 | 48.4% |
The judge lottery at San Diego Immigration Court
24 judges with enough asylum decisions to report. Grant rates run from 76.7% (30 decisions) down to 10.3% (97 decisions) - a 66.4-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 IPF | 30 | |
| 2 | Judge CHR | 301 | |
| 3 | Judge SS2 | 477 | |
| 4 | Judge MHH | 173 | |
| 5 | Judge GRN | 143 | |
| 6 | Judge AAN | 562 | |
| 7 | Judge BAR | 417 | |
| 8 | Judge RAI | 39 | |
| 9 | Judge APA | 161 | |
| 10 | Judge GGG | 571 | |
| 11 | Judge ZZD | 93 | |
| 12 | Judge JPJ | 310 | |
| 13 | Judge VAB | 55 | |
| 14 | Judge JDV | 532 | |
| 15 | Judge HPI | 378 | |
| 16 | Judge LOC | 547 | |
| 17 | Judge OEA | 226 | |
| 18 | Judge JCL | 548 | |
| 19 | Judge RLR | 287 | |
| 20 | Judge PSL | 862 | |
| 21 | Judge CPN | 73 | |
| 22 | Judge JLR | 546 | |
| 23 | Judge CAB | 333 | |
| 24 | Judge RBM | 97 | |
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)
- Phoenix Immigration Court · Phoenix, AZ · 38.2% grant · 7,051 merits
- Hartford Immigration Court · Hartford, CT · 38.0% grant · 5,835 merits
- Seattle Immigration Court · Seattle, WA · 37.8% grant · 17,027 merits
- Fort Snelling Immigration Court · Fort Snelling, MN · 37.6% grant · 8,783 merits
Similar merits caseload (± grant rate)
- Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court · Houston, TX · 8,052 merits · 36.1% grant
- New Orleans Immigration Court · New Orleans, LA · 8,667 merits · 41.5% grant
- Salt Lake City Immigration Court · West Valley City, UT · 8,831 merits · 59.3% grant
- Las Vegas Immigration Court · Las Vegas, NV · 6,581 merits · 47.6% 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 San Diego's 7,941-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. San Diego 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.