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Immigration courts in Massachusetts

The immigration courts in Massachusetts recorded 45,528 proceedings completed in FY2025, according to EOIR immigration court outcomes by court and fiscal year.

EOIR runs 3 immigration courts in Massachusetts, with 69 judges assigned to them today. They completed 45,528 proceedings in FY2025 and had 24,162 still waiting.

What the courts here did in FY2025

45,528
Proceedings completed, FY2025
7.7% decided in absentia
24,162
Proceedings pending as of October 2026
45.9%
Asylum grant rate, FY2021–FY2025
against 37.3% across the country over the same five years

Asylum grant rate at the courts in Massachusetts, by fiscal year

Immigration courts in Massachusetts granted asylum in 40.2% of decisions in FY2025, against 23.2% across the country

The asylum grant rate at the immigration courts sitting in Massachusetts, against every court in the country. Year by year, where the figures above this chart are over the five years to FY2025.

The last point here is FY2025 alone, by federal fiscal year.

Courts sitting in Massachusetts, not its residents: a detained court hears cases from far outside the state it sits in.

A rate is applications granted over applications granted plus denied. Those abandoned, withdrawn, administratively closed or otherwise not adjudicated are in neither side of it, and across EOIR’s release they outnumber the decisions.

None of this measures how a court decides. Representation and the detained share of a docket move a grant rate more than the court does, and this site has loaded neither.

Source: The Executive Office for Immigration Review

About this chart

The figures

Immigration courts in Massachusetts granted asylum in 40.2% of decisions in FY2025, against 23.2% across the country. The asylum grant rate at the immigration courts sitting in Massachusetts, against every court in the country. Year by year, where the figures above this chart are over the five years to FY2025.
Fiscal yearMassachusettsUnited States
FY202540.2%23.2%
FY202447.5%43.6%
FY202344.5%47.3%
FY202255.9%46.2%
FY202159.8%37.1%
FY202048.5%28.0%
FY201944.3%30.2%
FY201854.7%33.7%
FY201763.1%38.3%
FY201676.9%43.5%
FY201573.3%48.6%
FY201453.8%49.0%
FY201356.2%52.8%
FY201257.2%55.5%
FY201154.3%52.1%
FY201044.8%50.7%
FY200944.0%47.5%
FY200842.2%45.2%
FY200739.4%46.3%
FY200641.2%44.7%

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53.1% of a year's work was still waiting at the end of FY2025

24,162 proceedings were pending against 45,528 completed in the year — 53.1% where the country as a whole stood at 40.2%. Pending is a snapshot and completions are a year, so this is a ratio between two different kinds of number; it is the one EOIR's own file supports and it is not a waiting time.

Chelmsford granted 51.5% and Chelmsford granted 36.2%

The 3 courts in Massachusetts with enough decisions to rank granted asylum at rates 15.3 points apart over the five years to FY2025. A state figure is the sum of them, and the sum is not what either court did.

Every immigration court in Massachusetts

1 more column on a wider screen

Immigration courts sitting in Massachusetts, with what EOIR records for each
CourtJudges assigned nowAsylum grant rate
Boston3147.1%
Chelmsford CHE3936.2%
Chelmsford LOW2151.5%

Every immigration court by asylum grant rate ranks these against the rest of the country, which is the comparison this page does not make: the strip above places them among Massachusetts’s own. By proceedings pending ranks them by backlog.

A court with no rate decided fewer than 100 asylum applications in the window, which is too few for a rate to mean anything; its own page states the count. Judges assigned is a count of people with a live assignment, and a judge assigned to several courts in Massachusetts is one person on each of their rows — which is why 69 is fewer than the column added up.

Massachusetts elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crime Crime and justice

    Offenses reported to police by type, the trend, and the reporting coverage.

  • Cities by violent crime rate in Massachusetts Crime and justice

    What each agency serving 25,000 or more reported, ranked. Agency populations overlap, so these do not add up to the state.

  • Prison population Crime and justice

    People held under the state’s correctional authority, and the imprisonment rate. A different publisher counting a different thing.

  • Arrests by race, sex and age Crime and justice

    Arrests as the FBI’s participating agencies reported them, with what the figures can and cannot support at the top.

  • Hate crime Crime and justice

    Incidents reported to the FBI by bias motivation, as counts — the collection publishes no participation share, so there is no rate to compare states on.

  • Federal obligations Federal spending

    What federal agencies obligated against a place of performance in the state, per resident and by agency.

  • Registered nonprofits Nonprofits

    How many organizations the IRS lists in the state, what they report as revenue, and which kinds of work they do.

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    What drug and device companies reported paying doctors with a practice address in the state, and the largest recipients.

  • Farm program payments Farm subsidies

    What the Farm Service Agency paid through the state’s county offices, by program and by recipient. The offices that administered the payments, not a count of farms: a recipient addressed elsewhere is counted where they were paid.

  • Paycheck Protection Program loans PPP loans

    The PPP loans SBA guaranteed to businesses operating in the state, by county, with how many carry a forgiveness amount and how many were charged off. Loans, not businesses: a business with two draws is two loans.

  • Population, age, income and origin Demographics

    The Census Bureau's population estimates year by year, with births, deaths and migration, and age, income, poverty, housing and origin from the American Community Survey, each with its margin of error.

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    The homes under HUD’s rental assistance programs in the state, by program and county, and its tax-credit housing, each per resident and against every other state.

  • Mortgage lending Mortgage lending

    The mortgage applications, loans and denials lenders reported in the state under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and its largest lenders and counties.

  • Cost of living Cost of living

    BEA’s price level for the state against the nation, for goods, rents, utilities and other services, and its metro areas beside it.

  • County health County health

    CDC’s model-based estimates of adult health, risk behaviors and prevention for every county in the state, each with its 95% interval.

  • College athletics Sports

    Every college in the state that reported to the Equity in Athletics survey, ranked by its athletics revenue, with its expenses, athletes and athletic aid.

  • Federal civilian workforce Federal salaries

    Federal civilian employees stationed in the state by agency and occupation, with the pay OPM publishes and the share it withholds.

  • The Massachusetts Factbook entry Across the Factbook

    Every measure the Factbook publishes for this state in one place, each with where it ranks among the others and the record it came from.

The immigration hub has no page for this state: EOIR runs no immigration court here, and CBP publishes by sector and field office, which are its own areas of responsibility rather than a geography. Immigration and the border.

Sources

Compiled automatically from EOIR immigration judges and courts and EOIR immigration court outcomes by court and fiscal year by a checked SQL query · Editor: Kian O'Connor · How this site is built

Data retrieved