U.S. Asylum System: Significant Variation Existed in Asylum Outcomes across Immigration Courts and Judges

In September 2008, we reported that there were large disparities in asylum grant rates across immigration judges, after statistically controlling for a variety of characteristics of asylum claimants and immigration judges. Our analyses used more comprehensive statistical procedures, examined a longer period of time, and had data on more potential explanatory factors than analyses of asylum grant rates conducted in 2006 and 2008 by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). As a result, we recommended that in order to address disparities in asylum outcomes that may be unwarranted and to facilitate EOIR's goal of identifying immigration judges who may benefit from supplemental efforts to improve their performance, EOIR should utilize the information from our multivariate statistical analyses to identify which immigration judges remained many times more or less likely to grant asylum than others, after accounting for claimant and immigration judge characteristics. In response, in November 2008, EOIR officials met with GAO to obtain our list of 17 immigration judges with disparate asylum grant rates, added these judges to the list of 21 immigration judges EOIR had identified as "outliers" in terms of their asylum grant rates for the years 2004 through 2008, and conducted further analyses to attempt to identify whether these judges differed from other judges in terms of two factors that EOIR stated were within its managerial control--professional conduct and legal performance. In addition, to improve the performance of immigration judges who appeared to have unacceptable patterns in their asylum decisions, EOIR conducted training on asylum disparities for all immigration judges at EOIR conferences held in 2008 and 2009. EOIR also conducted analyses comparing asylum grant rates for outlier judges before and after the 2008 training. We believe that EOIR's collective efforts have been responsive to the intent of our recommendation and this recommendation is closed as implemented.

Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) officials met with GAO in November 2008 to determine what types of skills were necessary to perform multivariate analyses such as those GAO conducted using data for the period from October 1994 to April 2007 in the subject report. EOIR requested and secured funding in fiscal year 2011 to hire a contractor to work with EOIR's Office of Planning, Analysis and Technology to replicate and update the multivariate analyses from GAO's study for the period from May 2007 through August 2011. A report summarizing the analyses was completed on December 21, 2011. According to EOIR, it has the information necessary to contract for the services and it is poised to replicate the process should it be necessary or desirable to do so in the future. EOIR's efforts have been responsive to our recommendation and this recommendation is closed as implemented.

In response to our recommendation, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) analyzed the duties and tasks performed by EOIR's Assistant Chief Immigration Judges (ACIJs), who oversee EOIR's Immigration Judges (IJs) in immigration courts across the country. EOIR assessed the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed for the ACIJ position, and determined what guidance and training was needed for ACIJs to enable them to provide effective supervision of IJs. EOIR developed two products in response to our recommendation, an ACIJ Handbook, which was finalized in May 2010, and an ACIJ Continuing Education plan, which was finalized in November 2009. Training for ACIJs, based on the Continuing Education plan, was conducted May 17-21, 2010. EOIR's efforts have been responsive to our recommendation and this recommendation is closed as implemented.