Immigration judge Jem C. Sponzo

Name: EOIR case outcomes for immigration judge Jem C. Sponzo
Creator: U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review
License: https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright

EOIR records Jem C. Sponzo as a serving immigration judge, code JCS, with 8,150 proceedings completed in the five fiscal years to 2025. Of the 596 asylum applications this judge decided in FY2021–2025, 535 were granted (89.8%) and 61 denied. Over the same years, the grant rate was 73.3% at the New York, NY court, where EOIR records this judge completing the most proceedings, and 37.3% across every immigration court in the country.

What these figures are, and what they are not

None of this measures how this judge decides. Represented and unrepresented applicants have very different outcomes and a judge’s mix of the two is not the judge’s doing; so is the share of their docket that is detained, and detention courts grant asylum at a fraction of the rate other courts do. EOIR publishes representation in a table this site has not loaded, and nothing here adjusts for either.

A grant rate is over decisions, not over applications. Applications that were abandoned, withdrawn, administratively closed, transferred or not adjudicated are counted separately below and are in neither side of the rate. Across EOIR’s whole file there are more of those than there are grants and denials together.

Proceedings, not people, and a case can carry several. The figures below count proceedings and asylum applications, which are both larger than the number of people involved. Pending is a snapshot as of September 1, 2026 and moves every month.

Cases, decisions and backlog

8,150
Proceedings completed, FY2021–2025: 31.0% decided in absentia; 2,835
Proceedings pending as of September 2026: 89.8%
Asylum grant rate, FY2021–2025: 535 granted of 596 decided

Context, over the same fiscal years (FY2021–2025)

Every immigration court in the country: 37.3% granted; 140,740 of 377,216 asylum applications decided
The New York, NY court, where EOIR records this judge completing the most proceedings: 73.3% granted; 19,854 of 27,104 asylum applications decided

For the reader to weigh, not a measure of this judge: everything in the box above applies to these rates as well, and a court’s docket is not any one judge’s.

Over the 5 fiscal years from 2021 to 2025, this judge granted 535 asylum applications and denied 61 — 89.8% of those decided. A further 1,823 ended neither way and are in neither figure.

By fiscal year

Immigration judge Jem C. Sponzo completed 2,330 proceedings in FY2025, against 119 in FY2016

Proceedings EOIR records this judge completing, by federal fiscal year. A year with no column is a year in which EOIR records no proceeding completed by this judge.

U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review — EOIR immigration court outcomes by judge, court and fiscal year

The figures behind this chart

Immigration judge Jem C. Sponzo completed 2,330 proceedings in FY2025, against 119 in FY2016. Proceedings EOIR records this judge completing, by federal fiscal year. A year with no column is a year in which EOIR records no proceeding completed by this judge.
Fiscal year	Completed	In absentia	Asylum granted	Asylum denied	Neither
FY2025	2,330	734	53	19	613
FY2024	2,054	767	133	14	348
FY2023	1,640	458	187	7	375
FY2022	1,594	543	137	11	351
FY2021	532	21	25	10	136
FY2020	826	103	89	110	145
FY2019	1,751	157	241	104	369
FY2018	925	122	181	101	296
FY2017	464	54	69	22	116
FY2016	119	2	0	0	77

Complete fiscal years only. A proceeding is counted in the year it completed, which is not the year it was recorded, so this table is not a record of what arrived.

Where the proceedings were

Immigration courts where Jem C. Sponzo completed proceedings
Court	Proceedings completed
New York, NY (NYC)	14,515
Conroe, TX (CIC)	217
New York, NY (NYV)	35
Newark, NJ (NEW)	15
Houston, TX (HOU)	13
Eloy, AZ (ELO)	12
Harlingen, TX (HLG)	12
New York, NY (NYB)	10
Annandale, VA (WAS)	10
San Antonio, TX (SNA)	8
Charlotte, NC (CHL)	7
Pearsall, TX (PSD)	7
El Paso, TX (ELP)	6
Imperial, CA (IMP)	6
Buffalo, NY (BUF)	5
Orlando, FL (ORL)	5
Philadelphia, PA (PHI)	5
Baltimore, MD (BAL)	4
Chicago, IL (CHI)	4
Otero, NM (OTO)	4
Los Fresnos, TX (PIS)	4
Adelanto, CA (ADL)	3
Houston, TX (HSG)	3
Memphis, TN (MEM)	3
Los Angeles, CA (WLA)	3
Aurora, CO (AUR)	2
Boston, MA (BOS)	2
Dallas, TX (DAL)	2
Elizabeth, NJ (ELZ)	2
Hartford, CT (HAR)	2
Phoenix, AZ (PHO)	2
Seattle, WA (SEA)	2
San Diego, CA (SND)	2
Tucson, AZ (TUC)	2
Atlanta, GA (ATD)	1
Atlanta, GA (ATL)	1
Fort Snelling, MN (BLM)	1
El Paso, TX (EPD)	1
Florence, AZ (FLO)	1
Jena, LA (JNA)	1
Laredo, TX (LRO)	1
New Orleans, LA (NOL)	1
Oakdale, LA (OAK)	1
Otay Mesa, CA (OTM)	1
Portland, OR (POO)	1
Tacoma, WA (TAC)	1

The courts where EOIR records this judge completing proceedings, which is not the same as the courts they are assigned to: a judge is assigned to a median of three at once and as many as 72, and an assignment is not a posting.

Sources

EOIR immigration court outcomes by judge, court and fiscal year — U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review · retrieved September 1, 2026
EOIR immigration judges and courts

Data retrieved September 1, 2026