Immigration Judge at Houston, TX
Judge ZAHRA JIVANI FENELON serves at the Houston, TX Immigration Court. With an asylum approval rate of 2.7%, this judge is below average compared to the national average. Data sourced from EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review).
Immigration Judge ZAHRA JIVANI FENELON was named in a federal lawsuit (Espinoza v. Blanche, filed May 2026) as among the immigration judges the U.S. Department of Justice fired. This reflects an allegation in a court filing, subject to further proceedings.
Source: https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Espinoza-v.-Blanche-Complaint.pdf
This post summarizes a public court filing and links to the source.
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ZAHRA JIVANI FENELON is listed with the Houston, TX Immigration Court. The headline asylum grant rate shown here is 2.7% based on granted and denied asylum decisions represented in the current dataset.
Among the largest nationality groups shown for this judge, the table highlights Honduras (439 decided, 0.5% grant rate), Mexico (295 decided, 3.1% grant rate), and Guatemala (208 decided, 0.0% 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 Other procedural outcomes, including terminated, withdrawn, administratively closed, or removed cases, are tracked separately where available and are not treated as asylum grants.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 |
|---|---|---|
| Honduras | 439 | 0.5% |
| Mexico | 295 | 3.1% |
| Guatemala | 208 | 0.0% |
| El Salvador | 138 | 0.7% |
| Venezuela | 133 | 6.0% |
| Nicaragua | 109 | 1.8% |
| Colombia | 61 | 6.6% |
| Cuba | 61 | 14.8% |
| Year | Cases | Grant rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 600 | 2.2% |
| 2024 | 867 | 3.3% |
| 2023 | 51 | 3.9% |
| 2022 | 5 | 0.0% |
| 2020 | 1 | 0.0% |
Judge ZAHRA JIVANI FENELON's asylum approval rate is 2.7% according to EOIR FOIA data.
The dataset lists 1,607 total asylum cases for Judge ZAHRA JIVANI FENELON.
The approval rate is calculated as granted divided by (granted + denied). It excludes terminations and withdrawals, and the source is EOIR FOIA data.