Immigration court
Houston, TX Immigration Court
38 judges · TX
EOIR data through Oct 1, 2026 · updated monthly
- 17,362
- Granted
- 149,112
- Denied
- 38
- Judges
Distribution
How this court's judges compare
At Houston, TX, 35 judges range from 0.5% to 29.2%.
Each judge's all-time EOIR decided outcomes across every court they have served in: granted ÷ (granted + denied). Judges now based at this court with at least 100 decided cases. A historical pattern — not a prediction for any case.
Recent decisions (Oct 2024 – Sep 2026): Houston, TX Immigration Court granted asylum in 3.0% of 16,886 decided cases. That is lower than the court's all-time rate of 10.4% (166,474 decided cases). Over the same months, the national rate was 5.0%.
What people ask about Houston, TX Immigration Court
These are the questions people asked most about this court from Apr 2026 to Oct 2026. The answers come from EOIR immigration court data and ICE arrest records.
Which judges at Houston, TX Immigration Court grant asylum most often?
Among the 23 judges at this court with at least 25 decided asylum cases in Oct 2024 – Sep 2026, the highest grant rates were: Monique Harris, 11.7% of 196 decided; Bao Q. Nguyen, 6.7% of 1,743 decided; and Georgina M. Picos, 5.9% of 509 decided. The median judge among them granted 2.5%.
How often does Houston, TX Immigration Court grant motions?
Across all years of EOIR motion records for this court, the most common decided motions were: Motion for Change of Venue, granted in 96.3% of 45,258; Motion to Withdraw as Counsel, granted in 83.2% of 38,036; and Motion to Dismiss, granted in 95.8% of 21,737. The rate counts every decided motion, including outcomes other than granted or denied.
How long is the wait from the first hearing to the individual hearing at Houston, TX Immigration Court?
For cases at this court whose first individual hearing was held in Oct 2025 – Sep 2026, the median time from the first master calendar hearing to that individual hearing was about 23 months. Cases still waiting for an individual hearing are not counted, so this is a floor, not an estimate for any one case.
How many ICE arrests are recorded in Houston, Texas?
ICE recorded 8,252 arrests in Houston, Texas from Aug 2025 to Jul 2026, 780 of them in Jul 2026. The highest month in these records, which start in Oct 2022, was Nov 2025 with 1,556. These are arrests anywhere in the city, not only at the immigration court.
How do BIA appeals from Houston, TX Immigration Court turn out?
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has decided 22,543 appeals filed by people in proceedings (respondent appeals) against decisions from this court; 10.9% were sent back or reversed (remanded, sustained or granted) and the rest were dismissed or denied. 9,469 more are pending. This covers all years in EOIR data and does not include appeals filed by DHS.
How to Interpret This Court's Data
Court-level statistics aggregate the judges and cases assigned to the Houston, TX Immigration Court, so the court average can differ sharply from any one judge's profile.
High-volume judge profiles at this court include Peterson, William C. (26,747 total cases), Law, Philip S. (20,183 total cases), and Brown, Robert (19,055 total cases). The largest nationality groups shown for this court (fiscal years 2020–2026) include Honduras (18,109 decided, 1.3% grant rate), Guatemala (8,068 decided, 0.8% grant rate), and Mexico (7,195 decided, 7.7% grant rate).
Asylum grant rate is calculated as granted / (granted + denied). Procedural outcomes are separated so users can distinguish merits decisions from docket-management outcomes.
This page uses public EOIR records last updated 2026-10-01. The data is informational and should not be treated as legal advice or a prediction for any individual case.
Read how EOIR data works or learn how to compare asylum approval rates.
What This Court Profile's Data Shows
This profile ranks #10 by published decided outcomes among 74 courts with at least 5,000 decisions (166,474 outcomes).
Its 10.4% historical rate is 0.5 percentage points above the 9.9% median for those 74 courts.
The largest published nationality row is Honduras: 18,109 decisions and a 1.3% grant rate in the nationality subset's stated scope.
These are descriptive historical aggregates. Court mix, judge assignment, representation, case facts, procedural posture, and changes in law are not controlled here, so the comparisons cannot predict an individual case.
Areas Served by This Court
Based on the official EOIR ZIP-code assignment, the Houston, TX Immigration Court is the assigned filing location for 1 ZIP codes. Main cities by state:
TX — Houston
Not sure which immigration court serves your address? Enter your ZIP code in the AsylumTracker app's coverage map.
Judges at This Court
| Judge | Approval Rate | Granted | Denied | Decided |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peterson, William C. | 4.0% | 986 | 23,386 | 24,372 |
| Law, Philip S. | 17.5% | 2,101 | 9,878 | 11,979 |
| Brown, Robert | 14.8% | 2,083 | 11,955 | 14,038 |
| Greenstein, Saul E. | 5.3% | 875 | 15,731 | 16,606 |
| Zimmer, William K. | 21.7% | 2,455 | 8,848 | 11,303 |
| Endelman, Gary E. | 5.9% | 639 | 10,116 | 10,755 |
| Bhagat, Nimmo | 7.0% | 719 | 9,571 | 10,290 |
| Yam, Mimi | 17.5% | 1,495 | 7,027 | 8,522 |
| Luis, Lisa | 5.6% | 439 | 7,428 | 7,867 |
| Picos, Georgina M. | 5.6% | 375 | 6,274 | 6,649 |
| Gemoets, Marcos | 4.3% | 271 | 5,960 | 6,231 |
| Harris, Monique | 6.2% | 342 | 5,154 | 5,496 |
| Brown, Sam, IV | 2.4% | 139 | 5,774 | 5,913 |
| Khan, Anwer A. | 3.6% | 192 | 5,174 | 5,366 |
| Nguyen, Bao Q. | 6.6% | 307 | 4,339 | 4,646 |
| Kinnicutt, Daniel P. | 3.0% | 52 | 1,702 | 1,754 |
| Ramos, Maritza S. | 3.3% | 124 | 3,627 | 3,751 |
| Wang, Lynn | 1.8% | 55 | 3,038 | 3,093 |
| Vail, Joseph | 29.2% | 648 | 1,571 | 2,219 |
| Gorman, Stephanie | 9.8% | 217 | 1,996 | 2,213 |
| Tida, Abdias E. | 4.2% | 74 | 1,709 | 1,783 |
| Hartnett, Sarah | 4.0% | 76 | 1,819 | 1,895 |
| FENELON, ZAHRA JIVANI | 2.8% | 44 | 1,551 | 1,595 |
| Lucic, Nicholas B. | 0.5% | 5 | 933 | 938 |
| Hughes, Erica | 3.6% | 45 | 1,211 | 1,256 |
| Greenbaum, Scott V. | 1.2% | 10 | 822 | 832 |
| Mcguirk, Erica J. | 2.1% | 23 | 1,092 | 1,115 |
| Buras, Kevin N. | 1.1% | 7 | 636 | 643 |
| Marks, Stephanie J. | 22.2% | 95 | 332 | 427 |
| Parikh, Kiera | 0.7% | 4 | 539 | 543 |
| Archuleta, Judy | 6.6% | 31 | 440 | 471 |
| Castrolugo, Elisa | 4.9% | 18 | 349 | 367 |
| Muneer, Revathi | 1.0% | 3 | 291 | 294 |
| Robinson, Jared | 3.1% | 5 | 157 | 162 |
| Hines Jr, Glen Ray. | 13.6% | 12 | 76 | 88 |
| Martin, Lionel C. | 3.8% | 5 | 128 | 133 |
| Jaroch, Brandon | 1.1% | 1 | 86 | 87 |
| Cheeks, Demetrius | 2.1% | 2 | 92 | 94 |
Roster entries without a usable profile denominator: Visiting Judge 15, 2000, M. Suarez. They are excluded from the rate table above.
Approval Rate by Nationality
Fiscal years 2020–2026 (Oct 2019 – Sep 2026).
| Nationality | Approval Rate | Granted | Denied | Decided |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honduras | 1.3% | 227 | 17,882 | 18,109 |
| Guatemala | 0.8% | 62 | 8,006 | 8,068 |
| Mexico | 7.7% | 552 | 6,643 | 7,195 |
| El Salvador | 3.1% | 200 | 6,328 | 6,528 |
| Venezuela | 10.8% | 378 | 3,117 | 3,495 |
| Nicaragua | 5.1% | 120 | 2,221 | 2,341 |
| Colombia | 1.6% | 26 | 1,633 | 1,659 |
| Cuba | 11.8% | 166 | 1,241 | 1,407 |
| Nigeria | 29.1% | 118 | 287 | 405 |
| Ecuador | 1.8% | 5 | 266 | 271 |
| Peru | 0.4% | 1 | 231 | 232 |
| Turkey | 25.5% | 51 | 149 | 200 |
| China | 40.5% | 70 | 103 | 173 |
| India | 19.9% | 29 | 117 | 146 |
| Dominican Republic | 1.5% | 2 | 134 | 136 |
| Pakistan | 49.2% | 59 | 61 | 120 |
| Romania | 4.0% | 4 | 95 | 99 |
| Iraq | 66.1% | 39 | 20 | 59 |
| Jordan | 16.7% | 9 | 45 | 54 |
| Sri Lanka | 7.8% | 4 | 47 | 51 |
| Belize | 6.1% | 3 | 46 | 49 |
| Cameroon | 45.5% | 20 | 24 | 44 |
| Vietnam | 40.5% | 17 | 25 | 42 |
| Brazil | 4.9% | 2 | 39 | 41 |
| Afghanistan | 2.8% | 1 | 35 | 36 |
| Unknown Nationality | 0.0% | 0 | 31 | 31 |
| Haiti | 3.6% | 1 | 27 | 28 |
| Kenya | 29.6% | 8 | 19 | 27 |
| Angola | 4.5% | 1 | 21 | 22 |
| Senegal | 0.0% | 0 | 22 | 22 |
| Syria | 65.0% | 13 | 7 | 20 |
| Chile | 0.0% | 0 | 20 | 20 |
| Iran | 36.8% | 7 | 12 | 19 |
| Jamaica | 56.2% | 9 | 7 | 16 |
| Russia | 31.2% | 5 | 11 | 16 |
| Bangladesh | 26.7% | 4 | 11 | 15 |
| Lebanon | 0.0% | 0 | 14 | 14 |
| Egypt | 69.2% | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| Costa Rica | 0.0% | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| Ethiopia | 27.3% | 3 | 8 | 11 |
| Democratic Republic Of Congo | 0.0% | 0 | 11 | 11 |
| Kazakhstan | 50.0% | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| Bolivia | 0.0% | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| Palestine | 42.9% | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| Congo | 14.3% | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| Panama | 0.0% | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Libya | 0.0% | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Holland | 0.0% | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Tanzania | 50.0% | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Sudan | 0.0% | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Trinidad And Tobago | 40.0% | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Canada | 60.0% | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Spain | 0.0% | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Zimbabwe | 100.0% | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 0.0% | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Mauritania | 20.0% | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Portugal | 0.0% | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Burkina Faso | 50.0% | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Philippines | 33.3% | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Ukraine | 33.3% | 1 | 2 | 3 |