Citations are to the 2009 Statistical Yearbook
- Immigration court receipts increased by six percent between FY 2005
(370,007) and FY 2009 (391,829). Receipts in FY 2009 increased by 11
percent from FY 2008. (Figure 1, Page B2) - Immigration court completions decreased by less than one percent
between FY 2005 (353,082) and FY 2009 (352,233). However, completions
in FY 2009 increased by four percent from FY 2008. (Figure 1, Page B2) - Immigration judge decisions decreased by 12 percent between FY 2005
(264,785) and FY 2009 (232,212). (Figure 4, Page D1) - Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and China were the leading
nationalities of immigration court completions during FY 2009, representing
69 percent of the total caseload. (Figure 6, page E1) - Spanish was the most frequently spoken language for immigration court
case completions during FY 2009 at over 68 percent. (Figure 8, page F1) - Thirty-nine percent of aliens whose cases were completed in immigration
courts during FY 2009 were represented. The representation rate for FY
2005 and FY 2006 would be 48 percent if failure to appear completions
were removed from the data. (Figure 9, page G1) - The failure to appear rate decreased to 11 percent in FY 2009. (Figure 10,
page H1) - Asylum applications filed with the immigration courts decreased by 27
percent from FY 2005 to FY 2009. Affirmative receipts decreased by 19
percent while defensive receipts decreased by 45 percent. (Figure 13,
page I1) - In FY 2009, the New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA;
Miami, FL; and Atlanta, GA, immigration courts received 54 percent of the
total asylum applications filed with the courts. (Table 6, page I3) - Six nationalities were among the top 10 nationalities granted asylum each
year during the five-year period FY 2005-09: China, Ethiopia, Haiti,
Colombia, India, and Albania. (Table 7, page J2) - The grant rate for asylum applications was 47 percent in FY 2009. The
grant rate was 55 percent for affirmative applications and 36 percent for
defensive applications. (Figures 16, 17, and 18, pages K1 and K2) - In FY 2009, the percentage of cases in which either asylum or withholding
of removal was granted was 56 percent. (Figure 19-B, page K5) - In FY 2009, 24 percent of proceedings completed at the immigration courts
had an application for relief. (Figure 22, page N1) - Fifty percent of FY 2009 immigration court completions involved detained
aliens. (Figure 23, page O1) - BIA had a 23 percent decrease in receipts between FY 2005 (42,725) and
FY 2009 (32,859) and a 29 percent decrease in completions during the
same period. (Table 17, page T2)