Immigration judge Penny M. Smith

EOIR records Penny M. Smith as a former immigration judge, code PMS, with 10,841 proceedings completed in the five fiscal years to 2004 and 22.5% of the asylum applications decided granted, against 37.3% across 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 Applications that were abandoned, withdrawn, administratively closed, transferred or not adjudicated are counted separately below and are in neither side of the rate.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 2026-09-01 and moves every month.

Cases, decisions and backlog

10,841
Proceedings completed, FY2000–2004: 9.2% decided in absentia; 0
Proceedings pending as of September 2026: 22.5%
Asylum grant rate, FY2000–2004: 23 granted of 102 decided

Over the 5 fiscal years from 2000 to 2004, this judge granted 23 asylum applications and denied 79 — 22.5% of those decided, against 37.3% across the country. A further 97 ended neither way and are in neither figure.

By fiscal year

2 more columns on a wider screen

What EOIR records for immigration judge Penny M. Smith, by federal fiscal year
Fiscal year	Completed	In absentia	Asylum granted	Asylum denied	Neither
FY2004	843	127	4	11	11
FY2003	1,865	296	8	24	38
FY2002	2,939	256	3	21	12
FY2001	2,983	140	3	6	10
FY2000	2,211	179	5	17	26
FY1999	1,742	190	5	12	18
FY1998	2,101	199	5	24	19
FY1997	1,981	250	2	18	9
FY1996	2,116	240	4	10	26
FY1995	2,253	307	2	11	23

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 Penny M. Smith completed proceedings
Court	Proceedings completed
El Paso, TX (EPD)	15,477
El Paso, TX (ELP)	11,330
Seattle, WA (SEA)	1,701
Las Vegas, NV (LVG)	155
Portland, OR (POO)	97
Sacramento, CA (SMO)	68
Houston, TX (HOU)	63
Laredo, TX (LRO)	50
San Francisco, CA (SFR)	46
Dallas, TX (DAL)	40
Atlanta, GA (ATL)	37
Phoenix, AZ (PHO)	22
Miami, FL (MIA)	17
Boston, MA (BOS)	7
Annandale, VA (WAS)	7
Hartford, CT (HAR)	5
Detroit, MI (DET)	3
Miami, FL (KRO)	3
Atlanta, GA (ATD)	1
West Valley, UT (SLC)	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