Judge Defoe, Craig A.

Immigration Judge at Chicago, IL

13.7%

Approval Rate

532

Granted

3,875

Denied

4,407

Total Decided

Judge Defoe, Craig A. serves at the Chicago, IL Immigration Court. With an asylum approval rate of 13.7%, this judge is below average compared to the national average. Data sourced from EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review).

Community Discussion

DATA AsylumTracker Data 2026-05-22

Judge Defoe (Chicago, IL) data snapshot: Overall rate fell from 20% to 2% in 3 years

A few numbers worth knowing if you have a hearing in front of Judge Defoe, Craig A. (IJ code CDE, Chicago, IL):

Overall track record

26 years on the bench (since 2001), 6,078 cases total, lifetime grant rate 13.2%

Last 3 years (2023–2026): 4,535 cases, grant rate 8.7% — 3.7pp below the Chicago court average (12.4%)

Nationality breakdown (2023–2026 cumulative)

Nationality / Cases / Grant rate
Mexico                1056    5.7%
Venezuela              627    8.9%
Nicaragua              517    4.3%
Honduras               448    2.7%
Guatemala              337    4.5%
Ecuador                260    1.2%
Colombia               259    0.4%
El Salvador             95    5.6%
Nigeria                 93    9.3%
India                   90   17.1%
Haiti                   87    0.0%

Year-by-year

2023:  771 cases, 20.5% grant rate
2024: 1076 cases, 10.6% grant rate
2025: 1599 cases, 6.4% grant rate
2026: 1089 cases, 2.4% grant rate

If you've appeared before Judge Defoe, I'd love to hear:

1. What's your nationality, and when was your most recent hearing?

2. How did your attorney prepare for this judge specifically?

Source: EOIR (U.S. Executive Office for Immigration Review) public statistics, May 2026 release, compiled by AsylumTracker. A judge's historical pattern does not predict the outcome of any individual case; this is shared to help set realistic expectations. Real-experience accounts from the community are welcome.

Have experience with this judge? Open AsylumTracker to reply or read more responses from the community.

How to Interpret These Judge Statistics

Defoe, Craig A. is listed with the Chicago, IL Immigration Court. The headline asylum grant rate shown here is 13.7% based on granted and denied asylum decisions represented in the current dataset.

Among the largest nationality groups shown for this judge, the table highlights Mexico (1,056 decided, 8.0% grant rate), Venezuela (570 decided, 12.1% grant rate), and Nicaragua (497 decided, 5.6% grant rate). Compare these rows with the judge's overall rate because nationality mix can materially change how the headline number should be read.

Grant rate is calculated as granted / (granted + denied). Other procedural outcomes, including terminated, withdrawn, administratively closed, or removed cases, are tracked separately where available and are not treated as asylum grants.

This page is based on public EOIR data last updated 2026-05-08. It is for research and information only, not legal advice.

Read the grant-rate methodology or learn how to read immigration judge statistics.

Approval Rate by Nationality

Nationality	Approval Rate	Granted	Denied	Decided
Mexico	8.0%	85	971	1,056
Venezuela	12.1%	69	501	570
Nicaragua	5.6%	28	469	497
Honduras	4.2%	20	456	476
Guatemala	5.8%	22	359	381
Ecuador	1.7%	4	237	241
Colombia	1.3%	3	220	223
El Salvador	14.3%	21	126	147
Nigeria	25.9%	30	86	116
India	22.9%	25	84	109
China	50.0%	47	47	94
Haiti	0.0%	0	57	57
Russia	31.5%	17	37	54
Moldavia (Moldova)	85.4%	41	7	48
Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan)	50.0%	17	17	34
Peru	4.0%	1	24	25
Jordan	26.3%	5	14	19
Pakistan	89.5%	17	2	19
Mongolia	53.8%	7	6	13
Uzbekistan	38.5%	5	8	13
Poland	58.3%	7	5	12
Vietnam	33.3%	4	8	12
Somalia	0.0%	0	12	12
Philippines	36.4%	4	7	11
Romania	0.0%	0	11	11
Belarus	100.0%	11	0	11
Kazakhstan	45.5%	5	6	11
Brazil	0.0%	0	11	11
Turkey	10.0%	1	9	10
Ukraine	90.0%	9	1	10
Cuba	0.0%	0	10	10
Belize	0.0%	0	10	10
Egypt	12.5%	1	7	8
Mauritania	37.5%	3	5	8
Dominican Republic	0.0%	0	7	7
Serbia Montenegro	33.3%	2	4	6
Syria	100.0%	6	0	6
Stateless - Alien Unable To Name A Country	0.0%	0	6	6
Indonesia	100.0%	5	0	5
Israel	50.0%	2	2	4
Angola	0.0%	0	4	4
Senegal	0.0%	0	4	4
Saudi Arabia	0.0%	0	3	3
Palestine	33.3%	1	2	3
Iraq	33.3%	1	2	3
Lebanon	0.0%	0	3	3
Zimbabwe	66.7%	2	1	3
Chile	0.0%	0	3	3
Ethiopia	100.0%	3	0	3
Kenya	0.0%	0	3	3
Montenegro	50.0%	1	1	2

Yearly Trends

Year	Approval Rate	Granted	Denied	Decided
2026	2.0%	15	725	740
2025	6.4%	90	1,306	1,396
2024	10.6%	102	857	959
2023	20.5%	134	521	655
2022	42.8%	155	207	362
2021	48.6%	52	55	107
2020	16.1%	58	303	361

Community Discussion

Judge Defoe (Chicago, IL) data snapshot: Overall rate fell from 20% to 2% in 3 years

How to Interpret These Judge Statistics

Approval Rate by Nationality

Yearly Trends

Get Full Case-Level Analytics