Immigration judge · Boston Immigration Court

Immigration Judge REF

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: Judge REF's 71.8% grant rate is among the highest in the tracked IJ corpus. Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 788 decisions FY2015–2025 (#303 of 1.7K).

Data updated 2026-09-05

71.8%
Asylum grant rate
28.2%
Asylum denial rate
788
Asylum decisions

Judge REF in one line

Judge REF's asylum grant rate is 71.8% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 788 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (heavy-corpus volume).

71.8%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
788
Merits decisions · Heavy-corpus volume
+23.5 pp
vs. national average
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"REF" 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.

Statistical data only. Judge REF's 71.8% grant-leaning history still mixes case types and nationalities, not a forecast for a future merits hearing. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.

Judge REF 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)

71.8% 188th of 1696 higher than 1,508 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 %
2015 32 26 6 81.2%
2016 67 64 3 95.5%
2017 92 66 26 71.7%
2018 107 57 50 53.3%
2019 221 136 85 61.5%
2020 102 72 30 70.6%
2021 50 41 9 82.0%
2022 62 58 4 93.5%
2023 54 45 9 83.3%
2024 1 1 0 100.0%

IJ rate-band chamber

Anonymized codes nearest Judge REF's grant rate

This chamber tracks nationwide IJs nearest Judge REF's 71.8% grant rate, an upper-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 REF are shown here.

IJ Grant Δ vs here Merits Stamp Court
JFD 71.8% same 436 LIGHT New York - Varick Street
WPK 71.8% same 39 THIN Sterling
JAL 71.7% -0.1 pp 435 LIGHT Chicago
JN 71.9% +0.1 pp 720 FULL Dallas
LEM 71.9% +0.1 pp 196 LIGHT Portland
DJS 71.6% -0.2 pp 732 FULL San Antonio

Same-bench poles at Boston

Same-bench spread at Boston: Judge REF runs 71.8% - above both the 48.3% national average and several benchmates with at least 20 merits.

Nationwide judges with similar asylum caseload

Other courts' busiest IJ codes by merits volume, a caseload peer set orthogonal to the ABS(grant-rate) chamber above.

  • IJ ACL · San Francisco Immigration Court · 787 merits · 82.8% grant
  • IJ AJC · San Francisco Immigration Court · 789 merits · 42.2% grant
  • IJ JLS · Houston - Greenspoint Park Immigration Court · 790 merits · 43.8% grant
  • IJ RW · Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court · 791 merits · 7.8% grant

Heavy-corpus IJ code REF: 788 FY2015–2025 merits in DOJ EOIR FOIA data. Statistical information only, not legal advice.

DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for IJ REF at Boston Immigration Court; asylum grant rate 71.8%. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 788 decisions FY2015–2025 (#303 of 1.7K).

Judge REF's figures are computed from EOIR case-level records - asylum grant rate 71.8%, 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 REF'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.