What is Judge DER's grant rate?

Immigration Judge DER has an overall grant rate of 28.6% across 42 decisions at the Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court. The denial rate is 71.4%.

Where does Judge DER serve?

Judge DER serves at the Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court. You can view all judges and court-wide statistics on the court page.

How many cases has Judge DER decided?

Judge DER has decided 42 cases on record in DOJ EOIR data, including 12 grants and 30 denials.

Does a judge's grant rate predict my case outcome?

No. Judge DER's 71.4% denial-leaning history still mixes case types, country conditions, and counsel rates, it is not a forecast for a future hearing. Always consult a licensed immigration attorney.

Judges → Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court

Immigration judge · Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court

Immigration Judge DER

Name: Immigration Judge DER - Case Outcome Data
Creator: PlainImmigration
Published: 2025-09-30
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: 42 merits decisions make Judge DER a thin-volume IJ code in the FOIA release. Grant rate sits in the lower third of tracked IJs at 28.6% (below the 48.3% national average). Merits volume is thin-corpus at 42 decisions FY2015–2025.

Compiled by PlainImmigration

Data updated 2026-09-05

28.6%
Asylum grant rate: 71.4%
Asylum denial rate: 42
Asylum decisions

Judge DER in one line

Judge DER's asylum grant rate is 28.6% (lower-third grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 42 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (thin-corpus volume).

28.6%
Asylum grant rate · Lower-third grant rate: 42
Merits decisions · Thin-corpus volume: -19.7 pp
vs. national average

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"DER" is the anonymized judge code DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) assigns in its public case-data release, not a verified public identity. EOIR does not publish immigration judges' full names in this dataset, so this code should not be read as confirming, or attributing these statistics to, any specific named individual. See our methodology for detail.

This judge's merits outcome mix

42merits decisions FY2015–2025

Granted12(29%)Denied30(71%)

Statistical data only. Judge DER's 71.4% denial-leaning history often tracks case mix and representation gaps, not a forecast for a future merits hearing. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.

Judge DER vs all tracked IJs by asylum grant rate

Where this judge's FY2015–2025 asylum grant rate sits among every tracked immigration judge (a leniency measure, not a quality ranking)

28.6% 1149th of 1696 higher than 547 of 1,696 judges

Immigration judges, banded by asylum grant rate

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more judges. 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

Year-by-Year Outcomes

Historical asylum merits decisions for this anonymized EOIR judge code. Annual rows can be thin, and are not a forecast of any future case.

FY	Decisions	Grants	Denials	Grant %
2019	23	5	18	21.7%
2020	9	2	7	22.2%
2022	5	1	4	20.0%
2023	5	4	1	80.0%

IJ rate-band chamber

Anonymized codes nearest Judge DER's grant rate

This chamber tracks nationwide IJs nearest Judge DER's 28.6% grant rate, a lower-third corpus rate, with THIN/LIGHT/FULL/HEAVY merits stamps on each peer row.

1,695 other immigration judges nationwide have a tracked asylum grant rate; the 6 closest matches to Judge DER are shown here.

IJ	Grant	Δ vs here	Merits	Stamp	Court
JDA	28.6%	same	42	THIN	Aurora
GEE	28.7%	+0.1 pp	4,623	HEAVY	Houston - Smith Street
KBR	28.7%	+0.1 pp	1,150	FULL	Houston - S. Gessner Road
CHJ	28.7%	+0.1 pp	167	LIGHT	Annandale
MLS	28.7%	+0.1 pp	143	LIGHT	Atlanta - W. Peachtree Street
JBC	28.5%	-0.1 pp	2,169	HEAVY	New York - Broadway

Same-bench poles at Houston - Smith Street

Same-bench spread at Houston - Smith Street: Judge DER runs 28.6% - below the 48.3% national average among IJs with at least 20 merits here.

Lower-third grant-rate IJ code DER (28.6%) in DOJ EOIR FOIA data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.

Read our methodology - how Judge DER's 42-decision EOIR row is sourced, computed, and verified.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for IJ DER at Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court; merits-decision volume 42. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is thin-corpus at 42 decisions FY2015–2025.

Judge DER's figures are computed from EOIR case-level records - merits-decision volume 42, not hand-typed editorial values. justice.gov/eoir/foia-library-0

Every figure on PlainImmigration is rendered directly from federal immigration court records, no number is typed in by an editor. Judge DER's grant/denial/merits 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.