Judge Lucy Billings

FY 2020 - 2025*, New York - Det Immigration Court

*data covers the first 11 months of fiscal year 2025

Published Nov 7, 2025

Lucy Adams Billings was appointed as an immigration judge to begin hearing cases in November 2023. Judge Billings earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1970 from Smith College and a Juris Doctor in 1973 from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. From 2004 to 2023, she served as a New York State Supreme Court justice. From 1998 to 2004, she was a New York City Criminal Court and Civil Court judge. From 1989 to 1997, and from 1982 to 1986, she was the director of litigation for Bronx Legal Services. From 1986 to 1989, she was staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union Children’s Rights Project. In 1986, she was the director of Legal Support for Legal Services of New York City. From 1976 to 1982, she was a senior attorney at Utah Legal Services, and from 1973 to 1975, she was a staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid. She is a co-author of the “Guide to New York Evidence,” which serves as New York’s de facto code of evidence. Judge Billings is a member of the New York State Bar, the Utah State Bar, and the Vermont Bar.

Deciding Asylum Cases

Detailed data on decisions by Judge Billings were examined for the period covering fiscal years 2020 through the first 11 months of 2025. During this period, court records show that Judge Billings decided 241 asylum claims on their merits. Of these, she granted asylum for 147, granted 2 other types of relief, and denied relief to 92. Converted to percentage terms, Billings denied 38.2 percent and granted 61.8 percent of asylum cases (including forms of relief other than asylum).

Figure 1 provides a comparison of Judge Billings'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 Billings's denial rate of 38.2 percent, Immigration Court judges across the country denied 58.9 percent of asylum claims during this same period. Judges at the New York - Det Immigration Court where Judge Billings decided these cases denied asylum 56.5 percent of the time. See Figure 2.

Judge Billings'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 Billings, 7.1% 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 Billings came from . Individuals from this country made up . of her caseload. 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%).