Asylum Outcomes Vary Widely

The outcome of asylum cases varies widely depending on the judge and the court handling a case, according to a study of 140,000 decisions by immigration judges. Big Disparities in Judging of Asylum Cases, N.Y. Times, May 31, 2007.

In one of the starker examples cited, Colombians had an 88 percent chance of winning asylum from one judge in the Miami immigration court and a 5 percent chance from another judge in the same court.

The study is: Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Andrew Schoenholtz & Philip G. Schrag, Refugee Roulette: Disparities in Asylum Adjudication, 60 Stan. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2007) (link is to May 15, 2007, draft on SSRN).

Thanks: Michele Storms.