State-Level Variation in US Asylum Grant Rates
State grant-rate ladder · DOJ EOIR FOIA · Sep 2026
New York leads the case-weighted state ladder at 64.9% grant rate; Nebraska is lowest at 25.8%. That is a 39.1-point spread across 29 states with at least 1,000 asylum merits decisions.
- 64.9%
- New York grant rate
- 25.8%
- Nebraska grant rate
- 39.1 pt
- Spread · 29 states with 1,000+ decisions
- 48.3%
- National grant rate (same filter)
Case-weighted from live court rows (grants / total asylum merits decisions). States under 1,000 decisions are dropped from the ladder. Not a prediction for any individual case. Vintage: Sep 2026.
Where an asylum case is heard shapes its odds. Grouping every US immigration court by the state it sits in and pooling their asylum merits decisions from FY2015 to FY2025, the case-weighted grant rate ranges from 64.9% in New York down to 25.8% in Nebraska - a 39.1-percentage-point spread across 29 states with at least 1,000 asylum decisions. The national rate across these states is 48.3%.
Not legal advice. These are historical statistical aggregates from DOJ EOIR data, not a prediction for any individual case. Outcomes depend on facts specific to each case: consult a licensed immigration attorney or accredited representative for guidance on your situation.
Asylum grant rate by state
| State | Courts | Asylum decisions | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 6 | 131,472 | 64.9% |
| Hawaii | 1 | 2,117 | 64.1% |
| Illinois | 1 | 21,578 | 61.3% |
| Utah | 1 | 8,831 | 59.3% |
| California | 11 | 148,712 | 55.5% |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | 11,412 | 55.2% |
| Maryland | 2 | 27,662 | 53.5% |
| Massachusetts | 3 | 22,744 | 51.6% |
| Colorado | 2 | 14,106 | 49.7% |
| Ohio | 1 | 9,432 | 49.7% |
| Virginia | 3 | 35,321 | 48.1% |
| Nevada | 1 | 6,581 | 47.6% |
| Oregon | 2 | 6,225 | 43.4% |
| New Jersey | 2 | 24,325 | 43.2% |
| Michigan | 1 | 6,017 | 42.5% |
| Tennessee | 1 | 11,643 | 40.8% |
| Florida | 3 | 56,888 | 38.1% |
| Connecticut | 1 | 5,835 | 38% |
| Minnesota | 1 | 8,783 | 37.6% |
| Missouri | 1 | 5,050 | 36.5% |
| Washington | 2 | 21,026 | 35.9% |
| Texas | 13 | 106,979 | 35.5% |
| North Carolina | 1 | 12,358 | 35.3% |
| Arizona | 4 | 15,951 | 33.3% |
| Georgia | 3 | 17,910 | 31.9% |
| Louisiana | 3 | 20,731 | 29.9% |
| New Mexico | 1 | 3,408 | 29.5% |
| Indiana | 1 | 1,967 | 26.8% |
| Nebraska | 1 | 5,224 | 25.8% |
Which states pull the ladder
The top three states by grant rate - New York (64.9%), Hawaii (64.1%), Illinois (61.3%) - together account for 155,167 of the 770,288 asylum merits decisions in this ladder. At the bottom, Nebraska (25.8%) and Indiana (26.8%) sit 39.1 points below the leader. Only states with at least 1,000 decisions appear here so small dockets do not dominate the ranking.
Source: DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) - FOIA Case Data Asylum (I-589) merits decisions by court, FY2015-2025 · 2026