Immigration judge · Los Angeles - West Immigration Court
Immigration Judge SDL
According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: Judge SDL's 70.3% grant rate is among the highest in the tracked IJ corpus. Grant rate sits in the upper third of tracked IJs at 70.3% (above the 48.3% national average).
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 70.3%
- Asylum grant rate
- 29.7%
- Asylum denial rate
- 222
- Asylum decisions
Judge SDL in one line
Judge SDL's asylum grant rate is 70.3% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 222 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (mid-band volume).
- 70.3%
- Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
- 222
- Merits decisions · Mid-band volume
- +22.0 pp
- vs. national average
"SDL" 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
222merits decisions FY2015–2025
Judge SDL 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)
70.3% 206th of 1696 higher than 1,490 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 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 61.5% |
| 2016 | 37 | 29 | 8 | 78.4% |
| 2017 | 80 | 52 | 28 | 65.0% |
| 2018 | 18 | 13 | 5 | 72.2% |
| 2022 | 26 | 16 | 10 | 61.5% |
| 2023 | 48 | 38 | 10 | 79.2% |
IJ rate-band chamber
Anonymized codes nearest Judge SDL's grant rate
This chamber tracks nationwide IJs nearest Judge SDL's 70.3% 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 SDL are shown here.
Same-bench poles at Los Angeles - West
Same-bench spread at Los Angeles - West: Judge SDL runs 70.3% - above both the 48.3% national average and several benchmates with at least 20 merits.
Nationwide judges with similar asylum caseload
Immigration judges at other courts with a comparable merits-decision volume, distinct from same-bench grant-rate peers above.
Data from DOJ EOIR FOIA bulk case data for Judge SDL at Los Angeles - West Immigration Court. Statistical information only, not legal advice.
Read our methodology - how Judge SDL's 222-decision EOIR row is sourced, computed, and verified.
DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) FOIA bulk case data for IJ SDL at Los Angeles - West Immigration Court; asylum grant rate 70.3%. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is mid-band at 222 decisions FY2015–2025.
Judge SDL's figures are computed from EOIR case-level records - asylum grant rate 70.3%, 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 SDL'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.