Immigration court
Newark, NJ Immigration Court
30 judges · NJ
EOIR data through Oct 1, 2026 · updated monthly
- 23,715
- Granted
- 106,499
- Denied
- 30
- Judges
Distribution
How this court's judges compare
At Newark, NJ, 30 judges range from 0.0% to 54.9%.
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): Newark, NJ Immigration Court granted asylum in 3.9% of 30,680 decided cases. That is lower than the court's all-time rate of 18.2% (130,214 decided cases). Over the same months, the national rate was 5.0%.
What people ask about Newark, NJ 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 Newark, NJ Immigration Court grant asylum most often?
Among the 18 judges at this court with at least 25 decided asylum cases in Oct 2024 – Sep 2026, the highest grant rates were: Laura N. Pierro, 92.5% of 80 decided; Shifra Rubin, 32.6% of 230 decided; and Leo A. Finston, 14.3% of 1,101 decided. The median judge among them granted 2.5%.
What is the asylum grant rate at Newark, NJ Immigration Court?
In Oct 2024 – Sep 2026, the court granted asylum in 3.9% of 30,680 decided cases (grants plus denials). Across all years in EOIR data, it granted 18.2% of 130,214 decided cases. Over the same recent months, the national rate was 5.0%.
How many ICE arrests are recorded in Newark, New Jersey?
ICE recorded 3,475 arrests in Newark, New Jersey from Aug 2025 to Jul 2026, 592 of them in Jul 2026. The highest month in these records, which start in Oct 2022, was Oct 2022 with 1,144. These are arrests anywhere in the city, not only at the immigration court.
How to Interpret This Court's Data
Court-level statistics aggregate the judges and cases assigned to the Newark, NJ Immigration Court, so the court average can differ sharply from any one judge's profile.
High-volume judge profiles at this court include Riefkohl, Alberto J. (22,688 total cases), Reichenberg, Margaret R. (14,424 total cases), and Meisner, Daniel A. (11,902 total cases). The largest nationality groups shown for this court (fiscal years 2020–2026) include Ecuador (9,941 decided, 11.3% grant rate), Guatemala (9,582 decided, 4.9% grant rate), and Honduras (6,559 decided, 6.3% 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.
Areas Served by This Court
Based on the official EOIR ZIP-code assignment, the Newark, NJ Immigration Court is the assigned filing location for 597 ZIP codes. Main cities by state:
NJ — Trenton, Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, Camden, Clifton, Cherry Hill, Edison, Plainfield, Princeton, Toms River, Absecon, Brick, East Orange, Elizabeth and 526 more cities
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riefkohl, Alberto J. | 29.5% | 4,584 | 10,955 | 15,539 |
| Reichenberg, Margaret R. | 16.8% | 1,899 | 9,405 | 11,304 |
| Meisner, Daniel A. | 24.4% | 1,796 | 5,556 | 7,352 |
| Dogin, Henry S. | 25.0% | 1,843 | 5,534 | 7,377 |
| Pugliese, Eugene | 17.5% | 1,184 | 5,596 | 6,780 |
| Chen, Shana W. | 3.9% | 304 | 7,552 | 7,856 |
| Finston, Leo A. | 18.9% | 1,197 | 5,149 | 6,346 |
| Rastegar, Ramin | 12.5% | 819 | 5,720 | 6,539 |
| Strasser, William | 42.5% | 1,777 | 2,408 | 4,185 |
| Sagerman, Roger F. | 4.8% | 382 | 7,518 | 7,900 |
| Speer, John K. | 54.4% | 2,321 | 1,944 | 4,265 |
| Ryan, Dennis | 3.1% | 156 | 4,922 | 5,078 |
| Lane, Nicole | 2.8% | 142 | 4,998 | 5,140 |
| Cheng, David | 15.7% | 645 | 3,470 | 4,115 |
| Mullican, Leila Mcneill. | 14.3% | 630 | 3,761 | 4,391 |
| Nazaire, Karen | 1.7% | 73 | 4,272 | 4,345 |
| Rubin, Shifra | 30.5% | 963 | 2,191 | 3,154 |
| Cabrera, Esmeralda | 36.2% | 1,037 | 1,826 | 2,863 |
| Neal, Michael M. | 4.3% | 144 | 3,202 | 3,346 |
| Moore, Carol | 7.7% | 303 | 3,621 | 3,924 |
| Kim, Nicole | 23.2% | 443 | 1,467 | 1,910 |
| Pierro, Laura N. | 18.6% | 389 | 1,701 | 2,090 |
| Manuel, Elise | 18.6% | 296 | 1,296 | 1,592 |
| Counihan, Brian | 1.8% | 28 | 1,556 | 1,584 |
| Roy, Susan G. | 14.8% | 158 | 911 | 1,069 |
| Lechtrecker, Kerri | 0.0% | 0 | 1,091 | 1,091 |
| Hinds Roach, Denise A. | 14.3% | 79 | 472 | 551 |
| Picione, Anthony | 0.0% | 0 | 484 | 484 |
| Kaplan, Elliot M. | 54.9% | 195 | 160 | 355 |
| Bates, Donna | 0.9% | 1 | 111 | 112 |
Roster entries without a usable profile denominator: Louisville Visiting Judge 2. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ecuador | 11.3% | 1,126 | 8,815 | 9,941 |
| Guatemala | 4.9% | 473 | 9,109 | 9,582 |
| Honduras | 6.3% | 414 | 6,145 | 6,559 |
| Peru | 4.5% | 257 | 5,478 | 5,735 |
| Brazil | 7.3% | 387 | 4,886 | 5,273 |
| Colombia | 4.4% | 223 | 4,838 | 5,061 |
| Mexico | 33.2% | 1,115 | 2,246 | 3,361 |
| El Salvador | 12.3% | 345 | 2,452 | 2,797 |
| Venezuela | 8.2% | 120 | 1,352 | 1,472 |
| Dominican Republic | 8.2% | 116 | 1,292 | 1,408 |
| Turkey | 10.9% | 146 | 1,196 | 1,342 |
| Haiti | 5.7% | 67 | 1,111 | 1,178 |
| Nicaragua | 5.7% | 64 | 1,050 | 1,114 |
| India | 24.8% | 135 | 410 | 545 |
| Nigeria | 59.6% | 323 | 219 | 542 |
| Costa Rica | 17.9% | 54 | 247 | 301 |
| Russia | 35.5% | 66 | 120 | 186 |
| Cuba | 13.6% | 23 | 146 | 169 |
| Georgia | 27.4% | 46 | 122 | 168 |
| Chile | 14.1% | 22 | 134 | 156 |
| Egypt | 32.3% | 50 | 105 | 155 |
| Jamaica | 27.0% | 41 | 111 | 152 |
| Ghana | 33.8% | 46 | 90 | 136 |
| China | 64.2% | 77 | 43 | 120 |
| Poland | 54.4% | 49 | 41 | 90 |
| Turkmenistan | 6.8% | 6 | 82 | 88 |
| Dominica | 0.0% | 0 | 88 | 88 |
| Sri Lanka | 21.8% | 17 | 61 | 78 |
| Pakistan | 37.0% | 27 | 46 | 73 |
| Ukraine | 78.1% | 57 | 16 | 73 |
| Burkina Faso | 32.9% | 23 | 47 | 70 |
| Philippines | 50.0% | 30 | 30 | 60 |
| Bolivia | 6.8% | 4 | 55 | 59 |
| Bangladesh | 43.9% | 25 | 32 | 57 |
| Romania | 2.0% | 1 | 50 | 51 |
| Jordan | 46.0% | 23 | 27 | 50 |
| Argentina | 15.2% | 7 | 39 | 46 |
| Portugal | 15.6% | 7 | 38 | 45 |
| Uzbekistan | 65.1% | 28 | 15 | 43 |
| Paraguay | 9.3% | 4 | 39 | 43 |
| Panama | 9.5% | 4 | 38 | 42 |
| United Kingdom | 15.0% | 6 | 34 | 40 |
| Guinea | 30.8% | 12 | 27 | 39 |
| Spain | 0.0% | 0 | 39 | 39 |
| Indonesia | 73.7% | 28 | 10 | 38 |
| Syria | 47.2% | 17 | 19 | 36 |
| Chad | 25.7% | 9 | 26 | 35 |
| Kenya | 41.2% | 14 | 20 | 34 |
| South Korea | 46.9% | 15 | 17 | 32 |
| Trinidad And Tobago | 37.9% | 11 | 18 | 29 |
| Senegal | 18.5% | 5 | 22 | 27 |
| Belarus | 82.6% | 19 | 4 | 23 |
| Guyana | 40.9% | 9 | 13 | 22 |
| Belize | 0.0% | 0 | 22 | 22 |
| Afghanistan | 40.9% | 9 | 13 | 22 |
| Soviet Union | 76.2% | 16 | 5 | 21 |
| Liberia | 26.3% | 5 | 14 | 19 |
| Germany | 0.0% | 0 | 19 | 19 |
| Unknown Nationality | 0.0% | 0 | 19 | 19 |
| Czech Republic | 0.0% | 0 | 17 | 17 |
| Sierra Leone | 62.5% | 10 | 6 | 16 |
| Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire) | 50.0% | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| Tajikistan (Tadzhik) | 63.6% | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| Democratic Republic Of Congo | 0.0% | 0 | 11 | 11 |
| Albania | 60.0% | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| Cameroon | 90.0% | 9 | 1 | 10 |
| Mauritania | 0.0% | 0 | 9 | 9 |
| Unknown Country | 57.1% | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Iran | 0.0% | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Uruguay | 33.3% | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Morocco | 0.0% | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Vietnam | 0.0% | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Israel | 80.0% | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Macedonia | 40.0% | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Yugoslavia | 100.0% | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| South Africa | 0.0% | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Slovak Republic | 40.0% | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Guadeloupe | 0.0% | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan) | 100.0% | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Kazakhstan | 0.0% | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Algeria | 0.0% | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Niger | 25.0% | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Serbia | 0.0% | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Mali | 100.0% | 2 | 0 | 2 |