Judge Sturla, Mario J.

Immigration Judge at Boston, MA

21.9%

Approval Rate

896

Granted

3,224

Denied

4,120

Total Decided

Judge Sturla, Mario J. serves at the Boston, MA Immigration Court. With an asylum approval rate of 21.9%, 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 Sturla (Boston, MA) data snapshot: Overall rate fell from 26% to 5% in 3 years

A few numbers worth knowing if you have a hearing in front of Judge Sturla, Mario J. (IJ code MJS, Boston, MA):

Overall track record

28 years on the bench (since 1999), 8,042 cases total, lifetime grant rate 21.1%

Last 3 years (2023–2026): 4,582 cases, grant rate 18.8% — 9.4pp below the Boston court average (28.2%)

Nationality breakdown (2023–2026 cumulative)

Nationality / Cases / Grant rate
Brazil                1968    8.2%
Guatemala              530   35.6%
El Salvador            348   45.1%
Colombia               300    8.6%
Honduras               265   21.6%
Ecuador                240   28.6%
Haiti                  205   10.4%
Dominican Republic     159    8.7%
Venezuela               54    0.0%
Mexico                  48   14.7%
Nicaragua               37    0.0%

Year-by-year

2023: 1038 cases, 26.1% grant rate
2024:  945 cases, 63.2% grant rate
2025: 1518 cases, 13.0% grant rate
2026: 1081 cases, 5.4% grant rate

If you've appeared before Judge Sturla, 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

Sturla, Mario J. is listed with the Boston, MA Immigration Court. The headline asylum grant rate shown here is 21.9% based on granted and denied asylum decisions represented in the current dataset.

Among the largest nationality groups shown for this judge, the table highlights Brazil (1,834 decided, 8.7% grant rate), Guatemala (519 decided, 35.5% grant rate), and El Salvador (346 decided, 47.4% 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
Brazil	8.7%	160	1,674	1,834
Guatemala	35.5%	184	335	519
El Salvador	47.4%	164	182	346
Honduras	26.2%	69	194	263
Ecuador	33.3%	86	172	258
Colombia	12.1%	26	188	214
Haiti	15.1%	28	157	185
Dominican Republic	18.9%	24	103	127
Mexico	28.9%	13	32	45
Democratic Republic Of Congo	35.9%	14	25	39
China	78.3%	18	5	23
India	45.5%	10	12	22
Jamaica	23.8%	5	16	21
Peru	28.6%	6	15	21
Venezuela	5.0%	1	19	20
Nicaragua	0.0%	0	18	18
Chile	5.9%	1	16	17
Turkey	58.8%	10	7	17
Dominica	0.0%	0	16	16
Angola	7.1%	1	13	14
Egypt	100.0%	12	0	12
Uganda	90.9%	10	1	11
Kenya	100.0%	8	0	8
Cape Verde	66.7%	4	2	6
Nepal	100.0%	6	0	6
Nigeria	50.0%	3	3	6
Portugal	40.0%	2	3	5
Congo	60.0%	3	2	5
Russia	80.0%	4	1	5
Oman	100.0%	4	0	4
Somalia	100.0%	4	0	4
Kosovo	100.0%	4	0	4
Cuba	0.0%	0	3	3
Moldavia (Moldova)	100.0%	3	0	3
Bolivia	100.0%	3	0	3
Iraq	100.0%	3	0	3
Romania	0.0%	0	3	3
Cameroon	33.3%	1	2	3
Afghanistan	0.0%	0	3	3
United Kingdom	0.0%	0	2	2
Ukraine	100.0%	2	0	2

Yearly Trends

Year	Approval Rate	Granted	Denied	Decided
2026	6.0%	37	579	616
2025	13.0%	138	925	1,063
2024	63.2%	177	103	280
2023	26.1%	191	542	733
2022	23.3%	206	680	886
2021	29.8%	110	259	369
2020	33.8%	110	215	325

Community Discussion

Judge Sturla (Boston, MA) data snapshot: Overall rate fell from 26% to 5% in 3 years

How to Interpret These Judge Statistics

Approval Rate by Nationality

Yearly Trends

Get Full Case-Level Analytics