Immigration Judge Matters
More often than not, whether a case is won in immigration court depends on the Judge assigned to the case. Of course, there are those facts where the law is just against you and no matter which judge you get, there is no hope, and there are times that your case is so simple that any judge should grant it.
In most cases, however, the reality is that the Immigration Judge plays a vital role in the outcome of your case. Depending on how the judge applies the law to the facts of your case determines the outcome of your case. Some may even say that each courtroom is its own world. This is even more evident when you look at the latest report on immigration judges’ decisions in asylum cases.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University has tracked records of decisions of Immigration Judges nationwide. This particular report tracks decisions from fiscal year 2002 through fiscal year 2007. These reports are now available for review.
A quick comparison of the percentage of asylum cases in New York, Newark and Hartford will show how crucial it is to the outcome of your asylum application. For instance, New York immigration court judges denied 38.3% of asylum applications. Compare this to Newark immigration court judges where the percentage rate of denied asylum cases drastically increases to 62.6, and in Hartford immigration court where the percentage rate of cases denied is 67.8. Both Newark immigration court and the Hartford immigration court denied asylum cases at a higher rate than the national percentage rate of denials, which is 59.8%.
Even in New York’s immigration court where the percentage of denied cases is substantially lower than the national percentage rate of 59.8%, the case largely depends on the judge assigned to the case. Below is a list of the New York immigration court judges presiding at 26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY. This list includes each judge’s rate of denial and their rank according to the percentage of denied asylum cases compared to all immigration judges. There are 267 immigration judges. The record ranks the judge from 1 – 267, with 1 representing the highest percentage denial rate and 267 representing the lowest percentage denial rate.
| IMMIGRATION JUDGE | PERCENTAGE DENIED | RANK |
| Sandy K. Hom | 84.90% | 45 |
| Barbara A. Nelson | 68.50% | 125 |
| Steven R. Abrams | 60.90% | 161 |
| Gabriel C. Videla | 57.70% | 178 |
| Paul A. De Fonzo | 56.70% | 183 |
| Joanna M. Bukszpan | 45.10% | 216 |
| Noel Anne Ferris | 43.90% | 219 |
| Robert D. Weisel | 41% | 229 |
| Javier Balisquide | 40.90% | 230 |
| Helen Sichel | 39.40% | 234 |
| Phillip L. Morace | 35.60% | 238 |
| Douglas B. Schoppert | 31.90% | 245 |
| George T. Chew | 29.10% | 247 |
| Thomas Mulligan | 28.80% | 248 |
| Theresa Holmes-Simmons | 27.40% | 249 |
| Annette S. Elstein | 26.80% | 250 |
| Sarah M. Burr | 26.10% | 252 |
| Brigitte Laforest | 25% | 255 |
| Patricia A. Rohan | 22.10% | 256 |
| Elizabeth A. Lamb | 21.90% | 257 |
| Vivienne E. Gordon-Urakpa | 21.70% | 258 |
| Noel Brennan | 16% | 262 |
| William P. Van Wyke | 13.70% | 263 |
| Margaret McManus | 12.20% | 265 |
| Terry Bain | 8.10% | 266 |
Only one immigration judge in New York’s immigration court made it to the top one hundred judges in percentage of denied asylum cases and that was Judge Hom, ranked at 45. As can be seen clearly from the chart, if there is an asylum case appearing before Judge Hom, the chances of denial are 84.9, while if the same case is assigned to Judge McManus, the chance that the case will be denied dramatically decreases to 12.2%.
The same comparison can be made with Judge Nelson and Judge Bain. If an asylum case appears before Judge Nelson, the chances of it being denied are 68.5 percent, above the national average. If that same case were to appear before Judge Bain, the chances of being denied is 8.1%.
Interestingly enough, according to this study, those individuals who appeared without representation were denied about 86% of the time even when appearing before judges who had lower percentage rates of denying asylum cases.
Finally, the study suggests that one of the reasons why the percentage rate of denials can vary so greatly from judge to judge is the “personal perspective that the judge brings to the bench.”