Immigration judge Natalie Smith

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

EOIR records Natalie Smith as a serving immigration judge, code NSM, with 2,348 proceedings completed in the five fiscal years to 2025. Of the 326 asylum applications this judge decided in FY2022–2025, 79 were granted (24.2%) and 247 denied. Over the same years, the grant rate was 36.2% at the Chelmsford, MA 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 Applications that were abandoned, withdrawn, administratively closed, transferred or not adjudicated are counted separately below and are in neither side of the rate.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

2,348
Proceedings completed, FY2021–2025: 3.7% decided in absentia; 6,304
Proceedings pending as of September 2026: 24.2%
Asylum grant rate, FY2022–2025: 79 granted of 326 decided

Context, over the same fiscal years (FY2022–2025)

Every immigration court in the country: 37.3% granted; 130,518 of 349,694 asylum applications decided
The Chelmsford, MA court, where EOIR records this judge completing the most proceedings: 36.2% granted; 785 of 2,166 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 3 fiscal years from 2022 to 2025, this judge granted 79 asylum applications and denied 247 — 24.2% of those decided. A further 329 ended neither way and are in neither figure.

By fiscal year

Immigration judge Natalie Smith completed 1,477 proceedings in FY2025, against 2 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 Natalie Smith completed 1,477 proceedings in FY2025, against 2 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	1,477	72	30	140	192
FY2024	829	10	49	105	132
FY2023	20	0	0	0	1
FY2022	15	3	0	2	3
FY2021	7	1	0	0	1
FY2020	4	0	0	0	0
FY2019	4	0	0	0	2
FY2018	7	0	0	2	0
FY2017	1	1	0	0	0
FY2016	2	0	0	0	2

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 Natalie Smith completed proceedings
Court	Proceedings completed
Chelmsford, MA (CHE)	2,758
Chelmsford, MA (LOW)	518
Boston, MA (BOS)	477
New York, NY (NYC)	5
Philadelphia, PA (PHI)	5
Atlanta, GA (ATL)	4
Fort Snelling, MN (BLM)	4
Annandale, VA (WAS)	4
Eloy, AZ (ELO)	3
Houston, TX (HOU)	3
Omaha, NE (OMA)	3
Orlando, FL (ORL)	3
San Diego, CA (SND)	3
Sterling, VA (STE)	3
Baltimore, MD (BAL)	2
Cleveland, OH (CLE)	2
Hartford, CT (HAR)	2
Imperial, CA (IMP)	2
Las Vegas, NV (LVG)	2
Newark, NJ (NEW)	2
New York, NY (NYB)	2
Lumpkin, GA (SDC)	2
Elizabeth, NJ (ELZ)	1
Florence, AZ (FLO)	1
Harlingen, TX (HLG)	1
New Orleans, LA (NOL)	1
Oakdale, LA (OAK)	1
Pearsall, TX (PSD)	1
San Antonio, TX (SNA)	1
Los Angeles, CA (WLA)	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