Judge Guy G. Grande

FY 2021 - 2026*, Otay Mesa Immigration Court

*data covers the first 9 months of fiscal year 2026

Published Aug 27, 2026

Attorney General William Barr appointed Guy G. Grande to begin hearing cases in October2019. Judge Grande earned a Bachelor of Science in 1989 from University of California,Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor in 1994 from University of San Diego. From 2015 to 2019, heserved as assistant chief counsel, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Immigration andCustoms Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, inSan Diego. From 1994 to 2015, he worked in private immigration practice at Aguirre Law GroupAPC. Judge Grande is a member of the California State Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Grande were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2021 through the first 9 months of 2026. During this period, court records show that Judge Grande decided 107 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 27, granted 11 other types of relief, and denied relief to 69. Converted to percentage terms, Grande denied 64.5 percent and granted 35.5 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Grande's denial rate each fiscal year over this recent period. (Rates for years with less than 25 decisions are not shown.)

Nationwide Comparisons

Compared to Judge Grande's denial rate of 64.5 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 62.9 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Otay Mesa Immigration Court where Judge Grande decided these cases denied asylum 56.2 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Grande's asylum grant and denial rates are compared with other judges serving on the same court in this table. Note that when an Immigration Judge serves on more than one court during the same period, separate Immigration Judge reports are created for any Court in which the judge rendered at least 100 asylum decisions.

Why Do Denial Rates Vary Among Judges?

Although denial rates are shaped by each Judge's judicial philosophy, denial rates are also shaped by other factors, such as the types of cases on the Judge's docket, the detained status of immigrant respondents, current immigration policies, and other factors beyond an individual Judge's control. For example, TRAC has previously found that legal representation and the nationality of the asylum seeker are just two factors that appear to impact asylum decision outcomes.

The composition of cases may differ significantly between Immigration Courts in the country. Within a single Court when cases are randomly assigned to judges sitting on that Court, each Judge should have roughly a similar composition of cases given a sufficient number of asylum cases. Then variations in asylum decisions among Judges on the same Immigration Court would appear to reflect, at least in part, the judicial philosophy that the Judge brings to the bench. However, if judges within a Court are assigned to specialized dockets or hearing locations, then case compositions are likely to continue to differ and can contribute to differences in asylum denial rates.

Representation

When asylum seekers are not represented by an attorney, almost all of them (74%) are denied asylum. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful. In the case of Judge Grande, 17.8% were not represented by an attorney. See Figure 3. For the nation as a whole, about 18.8% of asylum seekers are not represented.

Nationality

Asylum seekers are a diverse group. Over one hundred different nationalities had at least one hundred individuals claiming asylum decided during this period. As might be expected, immigration courts located in different parts of the country tend to have proportionately larger shares from some countries than from others. And, given the required legal grounds for a successful asylum claim, asylum seekers from some nations tend to be more successful than others.

The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Grande came from Russia. Individuals from this country made up 16.8% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Grande were: Mexico (9.3%), China (7.5%), Colombia (7.5%), Armenia (6.5%). See Figure 4.

In the nation as a whole during this same period, major nationalities of asylum seekers, in descending order of frequency, were Honduras (10.1%), Guatemala (9.4%), Mexico (9.1%), El Salvador (8.7%), Venezuela (6.8%), Colombia (5.6%), Ecuador (5.3%), Nicaragua (4.8%), India (4.7%), China (4.7%), Russia (3.3%), Brazil (3.2%), Peru (2.9%).