Chief Immigration Judge Michael J. Creppy said he has never looked at data showing how immigration judges rule. Every case is different. There is a body of law that should be consistently applied. The language problem can also be formidable. It is hard to find competent interpreters, especially in smaller cities.
Immigration judges work in relative obscurity with little oversight.
In Los Angeles, Immigration Judge Roy Daniel presided over cases for more than a decade, even as the Justice Department received dozens of complaints about his behavior. Finally, in 1996, Chief Immigration Judge Creppy ordered Daniel off the bench. Data analyzed by The Times show that Daniel had more rulings overturned by the Board of Immigration Appeals than any other judge in the last five years. Applicants who lose asylum cases can appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. I venture to guess that such a presumption exists in many adjudications of asylum claims conducted by Immigration Judges.