Buffalo, NY immigration court

The Executive Office for Immigration Review records 64 judges currently assigned to this court, of 110 assigned at any time. It sits in EOIR’s Eastern region and EOIR marks it active. EOIR’s own code for it is BUF.

American Factbook Research

What these figures are, and what they are not

A grant rate is over decisions, not over applications. Across EOIR’s whole file, 1,947,620 asylum applications ended neither granted nor denied — abandoned, withdrawn, administratively closed, transferred, not adjudicated — against 1,370,866 granted or denied. This page states that third number beside the rate, because a rate that hides it describes a third of the record.

Pending is a snapshot and not a year’s work. It counts proceedings with no completion date as of the release named below, put in the fiscal year EOIR recorded them. It moves every month, for every past year. And the figures for what a court recorded and what it completed are two different populations in the same row: a proceeding recorded in 2019 and completed in 2024 is in both years and is one proceeding.

And an assignment is not a posting. A judge is assigned to a median of three courts at once and as many as 72, and the largest rosters here belong to detention courts whose cases are heard substantially by judges sitting elsewhere. The roster below is the assignments EOIR publishes and says nothing about where any judge is on any day.

Cases, decisions and backlog

9,138
Proceedings completed in FY2025: 18.4% decided in absentia; 9,017
Proceedings pending at 2026-09: oldest recorded in FY2009; 33.1%
Asylum grant rate, FY2021–2025: 897 granted of 2,713 decided

Over the 5 fiscal years from 2021 to 2025, this court granted 897 asylum applications and denied 1,816 — 33.1% of those it decided, against 37.3% across the country over the five years to 2025. A further 2,620 ended neither way and are in neither figure.

New York · 73.3%Miami · 4.1%

Buffalo is 29 of 74 by asylum grant rate, at 33.1%. Highest on the left.

The 74 figures behind this strip

Every jurisdiction by asylum grant rate, highest first, with Buffalo marked
Rank	Name	Asylum grant rate
1	New York	73.3%
2	Sacramento	72.8%
3	San Francisco	70.9%
4	West Valley	62.9%
5	Las Vegas	62.1%
6	Honolulu	60.1%
7	Concord	52.3%
8	Chelmsford	51.5%
9	Chicago	51.2%
10	Guaynabo	50.0%
11	Van Nuys	49.3%
12	Imperial	48.7%
13	Hyattsville	48.3%
14	Baltimore	47.9%
15	Boston	47.1%
16	Annandale	44.8%
17	Los Angeles	42.7%
18	San Diego	42.0%
19	New York	41.5%
20	Philadelphia	40.4%
21	New York	38.1%
22	Chelmsford	36.2%
23	Denver	36.1%
24	Sterling	35.3%
25	Hagatna	34.1%
26	Portland	33.9%
27	San Antonio	33.7%
28	Detroit	33.5%
29	Buffalo	33.1%
30	Hartford	31.2%
31	New Orleans	29.7%
32	Harlingen	29.6%
33	Otay Mesa	29.1%
34	Santa Ana	28.5%
35	Orlando	27.7%
36	Seattle	27.4%
37	Los Angeles	27.1%
38	Memphis	26.6%
39	Otero	26.5%
40	El Paso	25.8%
41	Newark	25.7%
42	Eloy	24.1%
43	Tucson	23.8%
44	Annandale	22.1%
45	Fort Snelling	21.2%
46	Miami	20.5%
47	Cleveland	19.8%
48	Aurora	19.6%
49	Dallas	19.2%
50	Indianapolis	19.2%
51	Tacoma	19.2%
52	Laredo	18.8%
53	Portland	18.6%
54	Phoenix	17.3%
55	Kansas City	16.5%
56	Jena	15.7%
57	Oakdale	14.5%
58	Lumpkin	13.4%
59	Houston	13.1%
60	Atlanta	12.9%
61	El Paso	12.5%
62	Atlanta	12.3%
63	Florence	12.0%
64	Charlotte	11.8%
65	Pearsall	10.2%
66	Los Fresnos	10.0%
67	Elizabeth	9.3%
68	Houston	8.7%
69	Conroe	8.0%
70	Houston	7.6%
71	Los Fresnos	6.8%
72	Adelanto	6.5%
73	Omaha	5.3%
74	Miami	4.1%

Buffalo completed 1,692 more proceedings than it recorded in FY2025

Proceedings EOIR recorded at the Buffalo immigration court against proceedings that completed there, by federal fiscal year. The two are different populations: a proceeding recorded in one year and completed in another is counted in both and is one proceeding. Complete fiscal years only.

Recorded is the date EOIR entered the proceeding in its system, which is not the date the charging document was issued. The gap between the two lines in a year is not the change in the backlog, because a proceeding completed this year may have been recorded in any earlier one.

U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review — EOIR immigration court outcomes

The figures behind this chart

Buffalo completed 1,692 more proceedings than it recorded in FY2025. Proceedings EOIR recorded at the Buffalo immigration court against proceedings that completed there, by federal fiscal year. The two are different populations: a proceeding recorded in one year and completed in another is counted in both and is one proceeding. Complete fiscal years only.
Fiscal year	Recorded	Completed	Asylum granted	Asylum denied
FY2025	7,446	9,138	215	649
FY2024	13,764	9,032	234	498
FY2023	9,406	5,957	174	224
FY2022	6,153	4,668	185	218
FY2021	2,187	2,289	89	227
FY2020	2,468	2,510	98	295
FY2019	3,226	3,383	87	319
FY2018	3,409	2,808	58	203
FY2017	2,978	2,973	60	116
FY2016	2,784	3,547	20	80
FY2015	2,459	3,404	12	78
FY2014	4,227	3,199	30	75
FY2013	2,369	2,518	23	81
FY2012	3,275	3,027	13	84
FY2011	4,570	4,266	8	88
FY2010	3,816	3,771	20	84
FY2009	3,709	3,636	28	88
FY2008	4,344	4,174	30	73
FY2007	3,867	3,876	11	68
FY2006	3,572	3,105	19	83

2 more columns on a wider screen

What the Buffalo immigration court recorded, completed and decided, by federal fiscal year
Fiscal year	Recorded	Completed	In absentia	Asylum granted	Asylum denied	Neither
FY2025	7,446	9,138	1,678	215	649	938
FY2024	13,764	9,032	1,648	234	498	649
FY2023	9,406	5,957	1,333	174	224	377
FY2022	6,153	4,668	615	185	218	438
FY2021	2,187	2,289	292	89	227	218
FY2020	2,468	2,510	366	98	295	214
FY2019	3,226	3,383	342	87	319	337
FY2018	3,409	2,808	155	58	203	316
FY2017	2,978	2,973	138	60	116	235
FY2016	2,784	3,547	240	20	80	206

Recorded and completed are different populations in the same row and must not be added. Complete fiscal years only: FY2026 had not ended when EOIR generated this release, and a part year beside whole ones reads as a collapse. The pending figure above does reach into FY2026, because a backlog is what is waiting now rather than what was waiting last September: 2,512 of 9,017 arrived in a year this table does not show.

What EOIR records

64
Judges currently assigned: 58.2% of all assignments; 110
Judges assigned at any time: 46 no longer assigned

The judges EOIR assigns here

Names as EOIR records them, surname first. A name links to what EOIR records that judge deciding; a judge with no completed proceeding has no page and no link. 46 further judges have been assigned to this court and are not listed, because EOIR no longer records the assignment.

Other courts

Batavia, NY
BTV · 36 judges currently assigned
Fishkill, NY
SIN · 67 judges currently assigned
Napanoch, NY
ULS · 76 judges currently assigned
New York, NY
NYC · 188 judges currently assigned
New York, NY
NYD · 84 judges currently assigned
New York, NY
NYV · 100 judges currently assigned
New York, NY
NYB · 81 judges currently assigned

Also: every court by asylum grant rate, by proceedings pending, and the immigration hub.

Sources

EOIR immigration judges and courts — U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review · Public domain — U.S. Government work · retrieved September 21, 2026
EOIR immigration court outcomes by judge, court and fiscal year · retrieved September 22, 2026

Data retrieved September 21, 2026