Judge Sponzo, Jem C.

23.7%

Approval Rate

795

Granted

3,906

Denied

4,701

Total Decided

Judge Sponzo, Jem C. serves at the New York City, NY Immigration Court. With an asylum approval rate of 23.7%, 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 Sponzo (New York City, NY) data snapshot: China vs Guatemala grant rates differ 41×, overall rate fell from 31% to 2% in 3 years

A few numbers worth knowing if you have a hearing in front of Judge Sponzo, Jem C. (IJ code JCS, New York City, NY):

Overall track record

32 years on the bench (since 1995), 8,598 cases total, lifetime grant rate 22.5%

Last 3 years (2023–2026): 4,947 cases, grant rate 11.7% — 10.0pp below the New York City court average (21.7%)

Nationality breakdown (2023–2026 cumulative)

Nationality / Cases / Grant rate
Guatemala             1307    1.3%
Ecuador                948    2.7%
Honduras               355    5.6%
China                  348   52.0%
El Salvador            285    5.4%
India                  235   32.1%
Colombia               149    2.2%
Venezuela              148    2.2%
Bangladesh             134   38.7%
Mexico                 129   16.5%
Uzbekistan              78    4.5%

China applicants see a 52.0% grant rate versus 1.3% for Guatemala applicants — a 40.9× gap on this judge's docket.

Year-by-year

2023:  708 cases, 30.9% grant rate
2024: 1016 cases, 16.5% grant rate
2025: 1463 cases, 7.4% grant rate
2026: 1760 cases, 2.4% grant rate

If you've appeared before Judge Sponzo, 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

Sponzo, Jem C. is listed with the New York City, NY Immigration Court. The headline asylum grant rate shown here is 23.7% based on granted and denied asylum decisions represented in the current dataset.

Among the largest nationality groups shown for this judge, the table highlights Guatemala (1,429 decided, 1.8% grant rate), Ecuador (790 decided, 7.6% grant rate), and China (396 decided, 61.6% 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
Guatemala	1.8%	26	1,403	1,429
Ecuador	7.6%	60	730	790
China	61.6%	244	152	396
Honduras	7.1%	25	328	353
El Salvador	13.0%	33	221	254
India	50.0%	118	118	236
Bangladesh	57.2%	83	62	145
Venezuela	4.4%	6	129	135
Mexico	25.8%	34	98	132
Colombia	2.3%	3	127	130
Nepal	55.7%	34	27	61
Dominican Republic	5.3%	3	54	57
Uzbekistan	5.3%	3	54	57
Nicaragua	9.8%	5	46	51
Haiti	8.3%	4	44	48
Russia	31.9%	15	32	47
Peru	9.1%	4	40	44
Georgia	11.9%	5	37	42
Jamaica	7.4%	2	25	27
Pakistan	47.8%	11	12	23
Senegal	4.3%	1	22	23
Turkey	9.1%	2	20	22
Soviet Union	65.0%	13	7	20
Romania	10.5%	2	17	19
Guinea	5.9%	1	16	17
Mauritania	6.7%	1	14	15
Egypt	50.0%	7	7	14
Guyana	27.3%	3	8	11
Nigeria	45.5%	5	6	11
Ghana	44.4%	4	5	9
Ukraine	37.5%	3	5	8
Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan)	85.7%	6	1	7
Albania	71.4%	5	2	7
Burkina Faso	66.7%	4	2	6
Trinidad And Tobago	16.7%	1	5	6
Angola	100.0%	5	0	5
Israel	0.0%	0	5	5
Kazakhstan	0.0%	0	5	5
Yemen	100.0%	4	0	4
Poland	0.0%	0	4	4
Dominica	0.0%	0	4	4
Belarus	75.0%	3	1	4
Burma (Myanmar)	100.0%	3	0	3
Sri Lanka	66.7%	2	1	3
Chile	33.3%	1	2	3
Chad	0.0%	0	3	3
Mali	33.3%	1	2	3
Tajikistan (Tadzhik)	0.0%	0	2	2
Philippines	0.0%	0	1	1

Yearly Trends

Year	Approval Rate	Granted	Denied	Decided
2026	1.7%	16	906	922
2025	7.4%	79	995	1,074
2024	16.5%	155	784	939
2023	30.9%	208	465	673
2022	26.8%	211	576	787
2021	66.0%	66	34	100
2020	32.0%	126	268	394

Community Discussion

Judge Sponzo (New York City, NY) data snapshot: China vs Guatemala grant rates differ 41×, overall rate fell from 31% to 2% in 3 years

How to Interpret These Judge Statistics

Approval Rate by Nationality

Yearly Trends

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