Published Oct 19, 2023
Iman Ghasri was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in March 2022. Judge Ghasri earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 2001 from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Juris Doctor in 2004 from the University of Miami School of Law. From 2006 to 2022, he was in private practice in San Diego and Orange counties in Southern California, with the last 12 years dedicated to the field of immigration law. Judge Ghasri is a member of the State Bar of California.
Deciding Asylum Cases
Detailed data on decisions by Judge Ghasri were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2018 through 2023. During this period, court records show that Judge Ghasri decided 109 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 25, granted 2 other types of relief, and denied relief to 82. Converted to percentage terms, Ghasri denied 75.2 percent and granted 24.7 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).
Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Ghasri's denial rate each fiscal year over this recent period. (Rates for years with less than 25 decisions are not shown.)
Figure 1: Percent of Asylum Matters Denied
Nationwide Comparisons
Compared to Judge Ghasri's denial rate of 75.2 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 60.6 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Santa Ana Immigration Court where Judge Ghasri decided these cases denied asylum 43.9 percent of the time. See Figure2.
Judge Ghasri's asylum grant and denial rates are compared with other judges serving on the same court in this table. Note that when an Immigration Judge serves on more than one court during the same period, separate Immigration Judge reports are created for any Court in which the judge rendered at least 100 asylum decisions.
Figure 2: Comparing Denial Rates (percents)
Why Do Denial Rates Vary Among Judges?
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. For example, TRAC has previously found that legal representation and the nationality of the asylum seeker are just two factors that appear to impact asylum decision outcomes.
The composition of cases may differ significantly between Immigration Courts in the country. Within a single Court when cases are randomly assigned to judges sitting on that Court, each Judge should have roughly a similar composition of cases given a sufficient number of asylum cases. Then variations in asylum decisions among Judges on the same Immigration Court would appear to reflect, at least in part, the judicial philosophy that the Judge brings to the bench. However, if judges within a Court are assigned to specialized dockets or hearing locations, then case compositions are likely to continue to differ and can contribute to differences in asylum denial rates.
Representation
When asylum seekers are not represented by an attorney, almost all of them (80%) are denied asylum. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful. In the case of Judge Ghasri, 1.8% were not represented by an attorney. See Figure3. For the nation as a whole, about 15.7% of asylum seekers are not represented.
Figure 3: Asylum Seeker Had Representation
Nationality
Asylum seekers are a diverse group. Over one hundred different nationalities had at least one hundred individuals claiming asylum decided during this period. As might be expected, immigration courts located in different parts of the country tend to have proportionately larger shares from some countries than from others. And, given the required legal grounds for a successful asylum claim, asylum seekers from some nations tend to be more successful than others.
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Ghasri came from China. Individuals from this country made up 16.5% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Ghasri were: Guatemala (12.8%), Mexico (12.8%), Romania (11.0%), El Salvador (7.3%). See Figure4.
In the nation as a whole during this same period, major nationalities of asylum seekers, in descending order of frequency, were El Salvador (16.6%), Guatemala (15.1%), Honduras (13.8%), Mexico (9.2%), China (6.8%), India (5.1%), Venezuela (3.2%), Ecuador (3.1%), Cuba (2.4%), Nicaragua (2.3%), Brazil (2.0%), Colombia (1.4%), Cameroon (1.4%).
Figure 4: Asylum Decisions by Nationality
TRAC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit data research center affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Whitman School of Management, both at Syracuse University. For more information, to subscribe, or to donate, contact trac@syr.edu or call 315-443-3563.
