Judge Matthew Gordon
FY 2020 - 2025*, Sterling Immigration Court
*data covers the first 11 months of fiscal year 2025
Published Nov 7, 2025
Matthew D. Gordon was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in March 2022. Judge Gordon earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2002 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Juris Doctor in 2006 from the University of Miami School of Law. From 2019 to 2022, he served as the Counsel for Immigration Programs, Office of the Solicitor, Department of Labor, in the District of Columbia. From 2016 to 2019, he served as a Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in Arlington, Virginia. During that time, in 2017, he served as an Acting Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Director, ICE, DHS, in the District of Columbia. From 2009 to 2016, he served as an Associate Legal Advisor, Enforcement and Litigation, OPLA, ICE, DHS, in the District of Columbia. During that time, in 2011, he served as Acting Senior Advisor to the Principal Legal Advisor, OPLA, ICE, DHS. From 2007 to 2009, he served as an Assistant Chief Counsel, OPLA, ICE, DHS, in Miami. During that time, in 2008, he served as a detailed Associate Legal Advisor, National Security Law Division, OPLA, ICE, DHS, in the District of Columbia. From 2006 to 2007, he was an Associate Attorney practicing immigration law with Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen, and Loewy LLP, in Miami. Judge Gordon is a member of the Florida Bar.
Deciding Asylum Cases
Detailed data on decisions by Judge Gordon were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2020 through the first 11 months of 2025. During this period, court records show that Judge Gordon decided 217 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, he granted asylum for 103, granted 8 other types of relief, and denied relief to 106. Converted to percentage terms, Gordon denied 48.8 percent and granted 51.2 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).
Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Gordon'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 Gordon's denial rate of 48.8 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 58.9 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the Sterling Immigration Court where Judge Gordon decided these cases denied asylum 60 percent of the time. See Figure 2.
Judge Gordon'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 (77%) are denied asylum. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion of represented asylum seekers are successful. In the case of Judge Gordon, 8.8% were not represented by an attorney. See Figure 3. For the nation as a whole, about 17.1% 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 Gordon came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 27.6% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Gordon were: Honduras (12.9%), Guatemala (10.6%), Nicaragua (9.7%), Colombia (8.3%). 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 (11.2%), Guatemala (11.2%), El Salvador (10.9%), Mexico (8.2%), China (5.2%), Venezuela (5.2%), India (5.1%), Ecuador (4.5%), Nicaragua (4.4%), Colombia (4.4%), Brazil (3.1%), Russia (3.1%), Cuba (2.8%).
