Immigration judge · Dallas Immigration Court

Immigration Judge SME

According to the DOJ EOIR FOIA release (vintage 2026-08), signature read: lead-nationality share at n/a is the most distinctive stamp on Judge SME's EOIR row. Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 487 decisions FY2015–2025 (#556 of 1.7K).

Data updated 2026-09-05

55.0%
Asylum grant rate
45.0%
Asylum denial rate
487
Asylum decisions

Judge SME in one line

Judge SME's asylum grant rate is 55.0% (upper-third grant rate, above the 48.3% national average) across 487 FY2015-2025 merits decisions (heavy-corpus volume).

55.0%
Asylum grant rate · Upper-third grant rate
487
Merits decisions · Heavy-corpus volume
+6.7 pp
vs. national average
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"SME" 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. Individual judge grant rates reflect historical case outcomes, case mix, nationalities handled, and legal representation rates all affect these numbers. This is not a prediction for any future case. Consult a licensed immigration attorney.

Judge SME 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)

55% 504th of 1696 higher than 1,192 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 %
2020 4 1 3 25.0%
2021 2 2 0 100.0%
2022 68 50 18 73.5%
2023 94 58 36 61.7%
2024 127 82 45 64.6%
2025 192 75 117 39.1%

IJ rate-band chamber

Anonymized codes nearest Judge SME's grant rate

This chamber tracks nationwide IJs nearest Judge SME's 55.0% 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 SME are shown here.

IJ Grant Δ vs here Merits Stamp Court
JNG 55.0% same 209 LIGHT Hartford
PKM 55.1% +0.1 pp 1,503 FULL Chicago
KSA 54.9% -0.1 pp 975 FULL Chicago
DDP 54.9% -0.1 pp 758 FULL Cleveland
RHD 54.9% -0.1 pp 486 LIGHT San Francisco
PMH 54.9% -0.1 pp 481 LIGHT Eloy

Same-bench poles at Dallas

Same-bench spread at Dallas: Judge SME runs 55.0% - 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 RHD · San Francisco Immigration Court · 486 merits · 54.9% grant
  • IJ NNA · Salt Lake City Immigration Court · 488 merits · 63.1% grant
  • IJ ELT · Chicago Immigration Court · 488 merits · 70.3% grant
  • IJ ASG · Philadelphia Immigration Court · 486 merits · 71.4% grant

Heavy-corpus IJ code SME: 487 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 SME at Dallas Immigration Court; lead-nationality share n/a. PlainImmigration computed grant/denial aggregates FY2015–FY2025; Merits volume is heavy-corpus at 487 decisions FY2015–2025 (#556 of 1.7K).

Judge SME's figures are computed from EOIR case-level records - lead-nationality share n/a, 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 SME'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.