North Carolina, Charlotte. – The Charlotte Immigration Court has received a large number of cases in recent years, and the responsibility for deciding many of those cases falls on the shoulders of seven judges.
Using data recently released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which analyzed a total of 3,210 asylum case decisions over a six-year span, from 2016 to 2021, it was found that the decisions in the Charlotte Immigration Court were of approval in only 9.7% of these cases, while it denied 90.2% of them.
During the six years this court received a total of 12,041 asylum applications, indicating that a decision has been made in 26.6% of the cases.
More asylum cases were received in Charlotte than ever in 2019
This Court, which opened in 2008, has received a total of 15,776 asylum applications dating back to 2001.
According to TRAC data, since 2016 there has been an uptick in asylum applications that reached this court, with fiscal year 2019 being the year in which the most applications were submitted.
With a total of 3,658 asylum applications, 2019 becomes the year in which the Charlotte Court has received the most of these cases, not only in the six years analyzed, but in the 14 years of its operation.
Decision rates vary depending on judge at Charlotte Court
According to TRAC data, the decision rates in asylum cases of the seven immigration judges in the Charlotte Immigration Court were analyzed, among them Judge Rodger C. Harris, who decided 561 asylum cases. , of which 17.1% approved, and 82.9% denied.
Harris was the one who granted the most asylums, and denied the least.
While Judge George W. Riggs, who decided 547 asylum cases, denied 99.3% of them, and only approved 0.7%.
Number of decisions made
The table below shows the number of decisions made in asylum cases by each Charlotte Immigration Court judge.
As well as the approval and denial rate of the cases that each one attended:
| Juez | Decisions | % Approval | % Denial |
| George W. Riggs | 547 | 0.7 | 99.3 |
| Amy T. Lee | 172 | 5.2 | 94.8 |
| Stuart Couch | 659 | 5.9 | 94.1 |
| Barry J. Pettinato | 656 | 10.8 | 89.2 |
| Jeffery R. Nance | 121 | 12.4 | 87.6 |
| Theresa Holmes S. | 494 | 16 | 84 |
| Rodger C. Harris | 561 | 17.1 | 82.9 |
Most decisions in New York
At the national level, TRAC analyzed 223,469 asylum decisions made in the six years in 62 Immigration Courts by 492 immigration judges.
And it found that asylum outcomes continue to vary significantly from judge to judge and court to court.
Asylum cases are not distributed evenly throughout the country.
Nearly half of all asylum decisions made during this period were issued by immigration judges in just six immigration courts, including those in New York, San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and Baltimore.
New York City judges alone issued nearly one in six of all asylum decisions.
This is almost double the number of the next busiest Immigration Court in San Francisco.
Photograph: Immigration hearing room at the Charlotte Immigration Court. Charles A. Phipps.
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