Immigration judge · Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court

Immigration Judge RJ1

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: 904 merits decisions place Judge RJ1 among the busiest IJ codes in the FOIA release. Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 904 decisions FY2015–2025 (#238 of 1.7K).

Data updated 2026-09-05

23.0%
Asylum grant rate
77.0%
Asylum denial rate
904
Asylum decisions

Judge RJ1 in one line

Judge RJ1's asylum grant rate is 23.0% (lower-third grant rate, below the 48.3% national average) across 904 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (heavy-corpus volume).

23.0%
Asylum grant rate · Lower-third grant rate
904
Merits decisions · Heavy-corpus volume
-25.3 pp
vs. national average
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"RJ1" 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 RJ1's 77.0% denial-leaning history often tracks case mix and representation gaps, not a forecast for a future merits hearing. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.

Judge RJ1 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)

23% 1294th of 1696 higher than 402 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 %
2017 51 9 42 17.6%
2018 178 59 119 33.1%
2019 360 79 281 21.9%
2020 304 55 249 18.1%
2021 10 6 4 60.0%
2022 1 0 1 0.0%

IJ rate-band chamber

Anonymized codes nearest Judge RJ1's grant rate

This chamber tracks nationwide IJs nearest Judge RJ1's 23.0% 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 RJ1 are shown here.

IJ Grant Δ vs here Merits Stamp Court
NBW 23.0% same 187 LIGHT Adelanto
RRA 23.0% same 74 THIN LaSalle
SM1 22.9% -0.1 pp 873 FULL Fort Snelling
JLR 23.1% +0.1 pp 546 FULL San Diego
LSW 23.1% +0.1 pp 412 LIGHT Phoenix
BLH 23.1% +0.1 pp 359 LIGHT Dallas

Same-bench poles at Houston - Smith Street

Same-bench spread at Houston - Smith Street: Judge RJ1 runs 23.0% - below the 48.3% national average among IJs with at least 20 merits here.

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 JMJ · El Paso Immigration Court · 904 merits · 38.7% grant
  • IJ DHO · Buffalo Immigration Court · 904 merits · 55.2% grant
  • IJ AFN · Santa Ana Immigration Court · 906 merits · 54.3% grant
  • IJ RJR · Chicago Immigration Court · 902 merits · 59.3% grant

Heavy-corpus IJ code RJ1: 904 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 RJ1 at Houston - Smith Street Immigration Court; merits-decision volume 904. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 904 decisions FY2015–2025 (#238 of 1.7K).

Judge RJ1's figures are computed from EOIR case-level records - merits-decision volume 904, 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 RJ1'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.