Judge Harbeck, Dorothy A.

21.8%

Approval Rate

888

Granted

1,883

Denied

2,771

Total Decided

Judge Harbeck, Dorothy A. serves at the West Los Angeles, CA Immigration Court. With an asylum approval rate of 21.8%, 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 Harbeck (West Los Angeles, CA) data snapshot: Bangladesh vs Colombia grant rates differ 21×, overall rate fell from 40% to 14% in 3 years

A few numbers worth knowing if you have a hearing in front of Judge Harbeck, Dorothy A. (IJ code DH, West Los Angeles, CA):

Overall track record

31 years on the bench (since 1996), 9,993 cases total, lifetime grant rate 21.5%

Last 3 years (2023–2026): 2,728 cases, grant rate 25.1% — 12.1pp above the West Los Angeles court average (13.1%)

Nationality breakdown (2023–2026 cumulative)

Nationality / Cases / Grant rate
Ecuador                561    7.1%
China                  274   72.7%
Colombia               203    3.7%
Venezuela              194    3.9%
Guatemala              127   19.4%
Honduras               111   21.6%
India                  108   51.1%
El Salvador             98   50.7%
Mexico                  97   23.1%
Dominican Republic      90    9.8%
Bangladesh              88   76.8%

Bangladesh applicants see a 76.8% grant rate versus 3.7% for Colombia applicants — a 20.6× gap on this judge's docket.

Year-by-year

2023:  526 cases, 39.7% grant rate
2024:  857 cases, 26.6% grant rate
2025:  753 cases, 21.1% grant rate
2026:  592 cases, 13.5% grant rate

If you've appeared before Judge Harbeck, 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

Harbeck, Dorothy A. is listed with the West Los Angeles, CA Immigration Court. The headline asylum grant rate shown here is 21.8% based on granted and denied asylum decisions represented in the current dataset.

Among the largest nationality groups shown for this judge, the table highlights Ecuador (559 decided, 13.1% grant rate), China (338 decided, 76.9% grant rate), and Colombia (184 decided, 4.3% 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
Ecuador	13.1%	73	486	559
China	76.9%	260	78	338
Colombia	4.3%	8	176	184
El Salvador	42.7%	76	102	178
Venezuela	4.2%	7	160	167
Guatemala	24.7%	39	119	158
Honduras	26.4%	38	106	144
India	56.1%	64	50	114
Mexico	34.6%	36	68	104
Bangladesh	80.8%	80	19	99
Dominican Republic	10.8%	9	74	83
Georgia	38.0%	30	49	79
Peru	7.5%	5	62	67
Russia	37.5%	24	40	64
Haiti	4.5%	2	42	44
Nepal	86.0%	37	6	43
Uzbekistan	7.7%	3	36	39
Nicaragua	2.9%	1	33	34
Turkey	7.4%	2	25	27
Albania	85.7%	18	3	21
Jamaica	40.0%	8	12	20
Senegal	22.2%	4	14	18
Mauritania	5.6%	1	17	18
Pakistan	62.5%	10	6	16
Chad	0.0%	0	16	16
Brazil	15.4%	2	11	13
Poland	100.0%	11	0	11
Morocco	0.0%	0	10	10
Kazakhstan	10.0%	1	9	10
Soviet Union	88.9%	8	1	9
Sri Lanka	57.1%	4	3	7
Guinea	14.3%	1	6	7
Dominica	0.0%	0	7	7
Guyana	16.7%	1	5	6
Ukraine	83.3%	5	1	6
Burma (Myanmar)	100.0%	5	0	5
Azerbaijan	20.0%	1	4	5
Egypt	75.0%	3	1	4
Mali	100.0%	4	0	4
Afghanistan	25.0%	1	3	4
Tajikistan (Tadzhik)	0.0%	0	4	4
Belize	0.0%	0	4	4
Trinidad And Tobago	0.0%	0	3	3
Kosovo	100.0%	3	0	3
Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan)	100.0%	3	0	3
Sudan	0.0%	0	3	3
Panama	0.0%	0	3	3
Romania	0.0%	0	3	3
Paraguay	0.0%	0	3	3

Yearly Trends

Year	Approval Rate	Granted	Denied	Decided
2026	14.4%	45	268	313
2025	21.1%	132	495	627
2024	26.6%	213	587	800
2023	39.7%	196	298	494
2022	53.1%	187	165	352
2021	87.5%	56	8	64
2020	47.4%	135	150	285