National ranking · FY2015–2025

The Immigration Judge Lottery

Asylum grant rates swing from about 97.2% for the most permissive judges down to 0.0% for the strictest, on the same law. The national average is 48.3%.

Data updated 2026-09-05

97.2%
Highest judge rate
0.0%
Lowest judge rate
48.3%
National average

Judge names below are the anonymized judge codes DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) assigns in its public case-data release, not verified public identities. EOIR does not publish immigration judges' full names in this dataset. Grant rates here are asylum (I-589) merits decisions for FY2015–2025 across the 77 immigration courts in our extract; EOIR's wider FOIA archive goes back to 2001 and is not this ranking's population. See our methodology for detail.

Download the EOIR asylum statistics dataset (CSV) , open extract wired into this page's Dataset JSON-LD.

The verdict

Outcomes in immigration court depend heavily on which judge hears the case: asylum grant rates range from roughly 97.2% to 0.0% among judges with at least 25 merits decisions. On the highest-grant board, the #25 cutoff to make this list is 90.0% (Judge DDK); on the lowest-grant board it is 3.8% (Judge NBW).

97.2%
#1 highest grant · Judge JB
90.0%
#25, highest-list cutoff
0.0%
#1 lowest grant · Judge JBS
3.8%
#25, lowest-list cutoff

Grant rates also reflect each judge's case mix, the nationalities they hear, and representation rates, not adjudicator philosophy alone. These are descriptive statistics, not predictions for any individual case, and not legal advice: consult a licensed immigration attorney or accredited representative for guidance on your situation.

Partial window: 47 judges below carry a chip such as "Since FY2024" or "FY2015–17 only". Their recorded decisions do not span all of FY2015–2025, so their figure covers fewer years than the rows without a chip; compare them with care. Their own pages show the year-by-year record.

Highest asylum grant rates

1
Judge JB
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 607 decisionsFY2015–17 only
97.2% 2
Judge SML
San Francisco Immigration Court · 1,257 decisionsSince FY2019
95.5% 3
Judge ET
Harlingen Immigration Court · 58 decisionsFY2015 only
94.8% 4
Judge PMM
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 866 decisionsFY2015–18 only
94.2% 5
Judge AKR
New York - Broadway Immigration Court · 181 decisionsFY2020–23 only
93.4% 6
Judge PRM
Sacramento Immigration Court · 1,053 decisionsSince FY2020
93.3% 7
Judge GTC
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 726 decisionsFY2015–17 only
93.3% 8
Judge MH
San Francisco Immigration Court · 387 decisionsFY2015–19 only
92.8% 9
Judge CSD
San Francisco Immigration Court · 761 decisionsSince FY2017
92.4% 10
Judge TAB
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 1,462 decisionsFY2015–20 only
92.2% 11
Judge EAL
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 848 decisionsFY2015–18 only
92.1% 12
Judge SYK
San Francisco Immigration Court · 216 decisionsFY2021–22 only
92.1% 13
Judge ADG
San Francisco Immigration Court · 1,363 decisionsSince FY2020
91.6% 14
Judge ECB
San Francisco Immigration Court · 382 decisionsSince FY2022
91.6% 15
Judge AAB
Charlotte Immigration Court · 95 decisionsSince FY2017
91.6% 16
Judge DLM
San Francisco Immigration Court · 901 decisionsFY2015–22 only
91.3% 17
Judge NB
New York - Broadway Immigration Court · 543 decisionsSince FY2020
91.3% 18
Judge JLV
San Francisco Immigration Court · 230 decisionsSince FY2016
90.9% 19
Judge KSL
San Francisco Immigration Court · 75 decisionsFY2023–24 only
90.7% 20
Judge FGL
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 2,218 decisions
90.6% 21
Judge DNS
Baltimore Immigration Court · 774 decisionsFY2015–19 only
90.6% 22
Judge ICD
San Francisco Immigration Court · 2,711 decisionsSince FY2016
90.5% 23
Judge VGU
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 2,121 decisions
90.4% 24
Judge LLR
San Francisco Immigration Court · 547 decisionsFY2015–19 only
90.3% 25
Judge DDK
New York - Federal Plaza Immigration Court · 627 decisionsSince FY2018
90.0%

Lowest asylum grant rates

1
Judge JBS
Oakdale Immigration Court · 54 decisionsFY2015–16 only
0.0% 2
Judge JGC
Houston - S. Gessner Road Immigration Court · 91 decisionsFY2019–23 only
0.0% 3
Judge SBM
El Paso Service Processing Center Immigration Court · 80 decisionsFY2015–17 only
1.2% 4
Judge RFS
Ulster Immigration Court · 75 decisions
1.3% 5
Judge SAR
Florence Immigration Court · 68 decisionsFY2015–19 only
1.5% 6
Judge GRG
El Paso Service Processing Center Immigration Court · 68 decisionsFY2015–17 only
1.5% 7
Judge ALR
Oakdale Immigration Court · 196 decisionsFY2015–19 only
1.5% 8
Judge TC
Miami - Krome Immigration Court · 62 decisionsFY2016–17 only
1.6% 9
Judge COK
Florence Immigration Court · 62 decisionsFY2017–18 only
1.6% 10
Judge CLF
New Orleans Immigration Court · 56 decisionsFY2020–21 only
1.8% 11
Judge DST
Otero Immigration Court · 52 decisionsFY2017–23 only
1.9% 12
Judge YKA
Miami - Krome Immigration Court · 220 decisionsFY2019–24 only
2.3% 13
Judge GWR
Conroe Immigration Court · 85 decisionsFY2018–19 only
2.4% 14
Judge DDW
Charlotte Immigration Court · 80 decisionsFY2025 only
2.5% 15
Judge LLU
Conroe Immigration Court · 158 decisionsFY2015–19 only
2.5% 16
Judge JDP
Atlanta - Ted Turner Drive Immigration Court · 75 decisionsFY2015–19 only
2.7% 17
Judge ZRA
Boston Immigration Court · 68 decisionsFY2022–23 only
2.9% 18
Judge LMM
Elizabeth Immigration Court · 103 decisionsSince FY2024
2.9% 19
Judge RRH
Adelanto Immigration Court · 101 decisionsSince FY2021
3.0% 20
Judge KWR
Adelanto Immigration Court · 101 decisionsFY2019–24 only
3.0% 21
Judge SGW
Otero Immigration Court · 122 decisionsSince FY2019
3.3% 22
Judge KC
Conroe Immigration Court · 58 decisionsFY2016–17 only
3.4% 23
Judge EBW
Stewart Immigration Court · 88 decisionsFY2019 only
3.4% 24
Judge RDM
Conroe Immigration Court · 56 decisionsFY2018–19 only
3.6% 25
Judge NBW
Los Angeles - N. Los Angeles Street Immigration Court · 52 decisionsFY2018–20 only
3.8%

How the asylum grant rate is computed →

Every figure on PlainImmigration is rendered directly from federal immigration court records, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on DOJ EOIR immigration court case data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-05.