McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Wide swings in judicial outcomes for immigration asylum cases nationwide since 2019 are noted in a recent report.
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reports individual asylum decisions for over 800 immigration judges that finds some have denied asylum in 100% of their cases, while another judge has denied just 1% of cases.
But, on average, more than half of all asylum cases in the United States over the past five years have been denied, a sentiment that has repeatedly been said by at least one South Texas congressman.
The nationwide asylum denial rate from 2019 through 2024 was 57.7%, according to the TRAC report released in November.
“To grant or deny an asylum application is among the most consequential decisions an immigration judge makes. For this reason, understanding how asylum decisions vary across time, across courts, and across judges warrants more attention — particularly in current public policy debates on immigration enforcement policies to reduce the court’s backlog of cases. The lessons that are evident from past decades should not be ignored. For many asylum seekers our current system has not delivered a fast and fair resolution of their cases. Often it has delivered neither,” the TRAC report found.
Some of the reasons for wide variations in outcome of asylum cases could be that fewer valid claims came before certain courts. Asylum applicants typically submit their claims to the court nearest their residency. Immigrants from the same country also tend to live in the same communities and their claims and outcomes can be correlated, the report found.
Other significant factors that can influence asylum outcomes includes the availability of skilled immigration attorneys in various communities, as well as court and docket size for number of immigration cases assigned to each judge, according to TRAC.
Two immigration judges in Houston — Monique Harris and Bruce Imbacuan, were cited in the report as having denied 100% of asylum cases in their courts. Harris has adjudicated 108 cases, Imbacuan has heard 105 cases with no cases granted asylum and no cases granted some type of relief, according to TRAC.
Bios on these judges show Harris previously worked as legal counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Her case denials all fell within 2019, according to TRAC. Imbacuan was appointed in 2020 and all of his denial cases occurred in 2020. He previously worked for ICE in Cleveland, Ohio, TRAC reports.
That’s contrary to other judges within the very same court who have denial rates of 70% and 79% but who also have heard many ore cases, 430 and 235, respectively.
In South Texas, the nine immigration judges deciding cases in Harlingen, vary in denial rates from 57.8% to 84.3%. The 11 judges in the Laredo immigration courts vary with denial rates from 24.5% to 90.2%. And the five judges in Los Fresnos, Texas, have had denial rates from 77.5% to 90.6%, the report finds.
In West Texas, the El Paso immigration court judges have issued denial rates ranging from 14.7% to 85.5%.
Judge Lorely Ramirez Fernandez, in El Paso, heard 129 cases since 2019 and has granted asylum to 70.5% of cases and some type of relief to 14.7% of other asylum cases, TRAC says. Her bio lists her as having served as a staff attorney with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso in 2007.
San Francisco immigration Judge Elisa Brasil has denied just 1.3% of cases since 2023, since she has been on the bench, according to TRAC. She previously represented clients before the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which are immigration courts, TRAC found.
“Although denial rates are shaped by each judge’s judicial philosophy, denial rates are also shaped by other factors, such as the types of cases on the judge’s docket, the detained status of immigrant respondents, current immigration policies, and other factors beyond an individual judge’s control,” the report found.
TRAC reports that, to date, there are over 3.7 million immigration cases pending.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, whose hometown is Laredo, repeatedly has said that asylum standards and policies need to be tougher and enforced at the border by law enforcement, because the number of asylum cases that actually are approved are far fewer than the number of people waiting for their cases to be reviewed.
In June, just as the Biden administration was implementing new asylum policies that require migrants to sign up for asylum interviews via the CBP One app, and all must cross through U.S. ports of entry, he said that the asylum system was overwhelmed and too many people had been allowed into the country to wait immigration proceedings that would not have favorable outcomes for them because they did not meet asylum criteria.
“If you let 100 people in, an immigration judge at the end of five, six years is going to reject 88, 89 or 90% of the cases. So why are we allowing 100% when most of these people are not going to be looking at really staying? It’s a false hope that those migrants are getting and and if they even show up at the end of five, six years. And as you know, in five, six years, a lot of things can change. They could have babies. They could have get married, and all of a sudden it becomes a little bit more complicated, so it’s better to address this at the very beginning than addressing this in five, six years,” Cuellar said.
“The costs are tremendous. The cities, the counties, the states and the federal government are literally paying billions of dollars for some folks that, with all due respect, at the end of the day — and I’m talking about five, six years — are not going to be able to stay here,” Cuellar said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
