Immigration Judge at Atlanta, GA
Judge Suzette Smikle serves at the Atlanta, GA Immigration Court. With an asylum approval rate of 1.4%, this judge is below average compared to the national average. Data sourced from EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review).
Judge Suzette Smikle drew public criticism in 2025 after a Nov. 3 bond hearing in which she found she lacked jurisdiction to release DACA recipient and photojournalist Ya’akub Vijandre while discussing his social media and religious/political speech.
Source: https://atlpresscollective.com/2025/12/13/daca-photojournalist-detained-by-ice-for-social-media-posts/
This post summarizes publicly reported news and links to the original source. Details may evolve; see the source for specifics.
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Suzette Smikle is listed with the Atlanta, GA Immigration Court. The headline asylum grant rate shown here is 1.4% 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 (1,649 decided, 0.4% grant rate), Mexico (1,287 decided, 1.1% grant rate), and Honduras (963 decided, 0.1% 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 Other procedural outcomes, including terminated, withdrawn, administratively closed, or removed cases, are tracked separately where available and are not treated as asylum grants.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 2026-07-01. It is for research and information only, not legal advice.
Read the grant-rate methodology or learn how to read immigration judge statistics.
| Nationality | Cases | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| Guatemala | 1,649 | 0.4% |
| Mexico | 1,287 | 1.1% |
| Honduras | 963 | 0.1% |
| Venezuela | 460 | 1.3% |
| Nicaragua | 353 | 2.3% |
| El Salvador | 272 | 0.7% |
| Colombia | 215 | 0.0% |
| Peru | 120 | 0.0% |
| Year | Cases | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1,888 | 0.6% |
| 2025 | 1,463 | 1.5% |
| 2024 | 1,215 | 2.1% |
| 2023 | 1,141 | 1.8% |
| 2022 | 4 | 0.0% |
| 2021 | 2 | 0.0% |
| 2020 | 34 | 0.0% |
Judge Suzette Smikle's asylum approval rate is 1.4% according to EOIR FOIA data.
The dataset lists 5,871 total asylum cases for Judge Suzette Smikle.
The approval rate is calculated as granted divided by (granted + denied). It excludes terminations and withdrawals, and the source is EOIR FOIA data.