Compare Courts & Judges

Why Compare Courts and Judges?

Immigration court outcomes vary dramatically depending on where your case is heard and which judge presides. Two courts in the same state can have grant rates that differ by 20 percentage points or more. Two judges in the same court can reach opposite conclusions on similar cases.

This tool lets you see those differences for yourself. Select any combination of courts or judges and compare their statistics side by side — total cases, grant rates, removal orders, and more.

What the Data Shows

Our analysis of 88 immigration courts and 1,269 judges reveals significant variation in outcomes. Grant rates for individual judges range from 0% to over 90%. Court-level differences, while less extreme, still represent the difference between likely approval and almost certain denial for many asylum seekers.

These differences matter because immigration case assignment is essentially random — respondents don't choose their court or judge. As our judge variation analysis and geographic lottery analysis show, this randomness creates profound inequities in the system.