September 2026: fewer cases, less relief.
The courts decided 1,918 fewer cases than in August (−1.9%) and also granted relief in 53 fewer cases, in absolute numbers.
The filter keeps tightening: every outcome, August vs. September.
| Outcome | August | September | Change | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cases decided | 101,016 | 99,098 | −1,918 | −1.9% |
| Relief granted | 1,831 | 1,778 | −53 | −2.9% |
| Removal order | 81,304 | 81,744 | +440 | +0.5% |
| Decided in absentia | 53,126 | 52,381 | −745 | −1.4% |
| With a lawyer | 34,188 | 32,907 | −1,281 | −3.7% |
| Without a lawyer | 66,828 | 66,191 | −637 | −1.0% |
| Detained the whole case | 14,870 | 14,713 | −157 | −1.1% |
| Case terminated | 3,592 | 2,127 | −1,465 | −40.8% |
| Voluntary departure | 9,258 | 9,125 | −133 | −1.4% |
| Administrative closure | 118 | 106 | −12 | −10.2% |
| Removal + withholding | 124 | 82 | −42 | −33.9% |
| Recorded appeals (see §10) | 18,216 | 12,783 | −5,433 | −29.8% |
Courts decided 1,918 fewer cases and granted relief in 53 fewer cases. The relief rate held at 1.79% and the removal rate rose to 82.5%: the filter did not open.
Orlando and Dallas fell more than the whole country.
September minus August, in cases decided. Together, Orlando and Dallas had 2,865 fewer decisions, more than the total drop for the month (1,918), because San Antonio (+1,368) and New York (+558) made up part of it.
In absentia decisions are still above half: 52.9%.
52,381 cases in September were decided in absentia (decided without the person in court). That is 745 fewer than in August (−1.4%), but the rate rose from 52.6% to 52.9%. More than half of everything the system decided was decided in front of an empty chair.
An in absentia order almost always means a removal (deportation) order, and it is very hard to reopen. The number one cause is a notice that never arrived. If you moved, file Form EOIR-33 with your court within 5 days. There is no fee. Confirm your date by calling 1-800-898-7180 instead of waiting for the letter.
Lawyer coverage fell from 33.8% to 33.2%.
In August, having a lawyer multiplied your chances by 53. In September, by 67. Not because lawyers did much better, but because the floor for people who go alone kept dropping.
It also went down, and it was already near the floor.
Non-LPR cancellation: from 15.48% to 15.92% in one month.
Adjustment of status rose a little (35.34% → 36.12%), but on only 814 applications. At that volume, month-to-month noise is large. Don't read it as good news.
In September, judges granted 198 withholding out of 37,655 applications and 61 CAT out of 36,216.
Venezuela and Nicaragua lost more than half of their relief rate.
Venezuela fell from 1.18% to 0.54%, and Nicaragua from 1.14% to 0.52%. Cuba is still the exception: the lowest removal rate in the group (65.2%) and the highest relief rate (2.38%).
These are national averages for a single month, not a prediction about your case. Your court, your judge, your type of relief and whether you have a lawyer matter more than your nationality.
| Country | Cases Sep | vs Aug | Relief Sep | Relief Aug | Removal | In absentia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | 20,843 | +0.7% | 1.76% | 1.76% | 79.1% | 48.6% |
| Venezuela | 13,862 | +3.2% | 0.54% | 1.18% | 88.3% | 64.5% |
| Honduras | 10,896 | −4.4% | 0.52% | 0.49% | 85.4% | 58.1% |
| Guatemala | 10,470 | −9.0% | 1.01% | 0.72% | 80.6% | 52.9% |
| Colombia | 6,195 | +0.9% | 0.26% | 0.47% | 85.6% | 58.4% |
| Ecuador | 5,156 | −1.9% | 0.95% | 0.88% | 89.4% | 56.8% |
| Nicaragua | 4,659 | −5.4% | 0.52% | 1.14% | 87.6% | 65.5% |
| El Salvador | 4,054 | −4.1% | 1.68% | 1.84% | 79.1% | 41.6% |
| Cuba | 2,736 | −26.8% | 2.38% | 2.09% | 65.2% | 28.7% |
| Peru | 2,384 | +10.6% | 0.92% | 1.07% | 87.5% | 57.8% |
| Haiti | 2,371 | +10.1% | 0.30% | 0.33% | 88.0% | 52.9% |
| Brazil | 2,247 | −4.9% | 1.02% | 0.72% | 82.6% | 59.5% |
Your country vs. the rest of the world.
Pick your country and we compare it with all the others combined: the national total minus your country, subtracted case by case over the last 12 months. 35 countries with 1,500+ decisions.
Green cards in court
adjustment of status granted by the judgeThis counts green cards obtained while in court; the legal path behind each adjustment is not in the public record.
Terminated cases
the judge closes the case without a removal order; termination does not give you status by itselfWhat protected Cuban cases is shrinking month by month.
"Rest of the world" = the national total minus your country, subtracted field by field; rates are recalculated after the subtraction. Each point is the % of cases decided that month. These are averages from public court data. They do not predict an individual case and are not legal advice.
Note: adjustment of status granted counts as "relief granted"; termination does not. It is a separate outcome category.
This page gives you the average. The app gives you your number.
How your judge decides cases of people from your country: case closures, actual relief, and how many of those cases had a lawyer. Two readings of the same judge can say opposite things, so we show them separately.
Thirty times the difference, depending on where your case lands.
Atlanta granted relief in 0.14% of cases, and Cleveland and Indianapolis in 0.17%; Concord granted 4.37% and New York (NYC) 3.23%. The gap closely follows the gap in legal representation: Concord and New York (NYC) are near 40% of cases with a lawyer (38.2% and 40.9%), while San Antonio and Chicago are at 12.6% and 15.9%.
| Court | Cases Sep | vs Aug | Relief Sep | Relief Aug | In absentia Sep | With a lawyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas DAL | 8,117 | −12.0% | 0.32% | 0.59% | 74.0% | 22.5% |
| Chicago CHI | 6,252 | −7.4% | 0.93% | 0.92% | 76.8% | 15.9% |
| San Antonio SNA | 5,353 | +34.3% | 0.21% | 0.63% | 78.3% | 12.6% |
| Miami MIA | 4,905 | +1.5% | 0.88% | 0.81% | 61.4% | 26.7% |
| New York NYC | 4,456 | +14.3% | 3.23% | 1.77% | 49.7% | 40.9% |
| Newark NEW | 4,081 | −12.6% | 0.61% | 1.01% | 76.2% | 22.1% |
| Atlanta ATL | 3,537 | +17.8% | 0.14% | 0.43% | 73.0% | 23.9% |
| Orlando ORL | 3,196 | −35.5% | 0.78% | 1.19% | 51.4% | 27.8% |
| Memphis MEM | 2,822 | +6.5% | 0.25% | 1.36% | 74.8% | 18.8% |
| Charlotte CHL | 2,763 | −11.5% | 0.90% | 1.47% | 71.3% | 25.1% |
| Concord CCC | 2,313 | +4.6% | 4.37% | 0.50% | 51.4% | 38.2% |
| Cleveland CLE | 2,300 | +26.4% | 0.17% | 0.77% | 68.2% | 28.3% |
| Indianapolis INP | 1,814 | +16.2% | 0.17% | 0.45% | 56.9% | 29.3% |
| Denver DEN | 1,774 | +24.0% | 2.48% | 2.03% | 57.0% | 21.5% |
798 judges signing decisions, 28 of them new to the bench.
Before you hire based on reputation, check the current number. A reputation from 2023 says nothing about last month.
150 judges granted nothing in September. Do you know which one you got?
Look up your judge and see how they actually rule: how many cases they decided without the person in court, how many months they have gone without granting relief, and how they compare with the 798 judges in the country. Based on official EOIR data, updated every month.
Showing up is the one thing that depends on you, and it matters most.
Recorded appeals fell 30% in one month.
From 18,216 to 12,783, while the volume of decisions fell 1.9%.
Don't read it as "people stopped appealing." There are 30 days to appeal to the BIA, and the record is updated when the notice enters the system, so the most recent month almost always looks incomplete and fills in later. Check it again next month before drawing conclusions.
September was no accident: the direction hasn't changed in more than a year.
The wait time did not move: 1,045 days from the NTA to the decision in September vs. 1,050 in August. The system is still deciding about 100,000 cases a month without deciding them any faster.
2,106,977 hearings already scheduled, through December 2029.
They are spread across 731 judges. 53% of pending cases have a lawyer on record. The peak comes right away: November 2026.
The curve drops further out because distant dates have not been scheduled yet, not because there are fewer cases.
Four things that are in your hands.
53% of September decisions were made without the person in court. You file Form EOIR-33 with the court within 5 days of any move. There is no fee.
1-800-898-7180 or the EOIR online portal with your A-number. Don't rely on the mail.
0.08% relief without a lawyer in September. Look for DOJ-recognized organizations and pro bono clinics; many courts keep a list of no-cost legal help.
150 judges with 100+ cases granted nothing in September. Data from the last quarter is worth more than reputation.
- This report compares September 2026 (99,098 decisions) and August 2026 (101,016): the two most recent complete months.
- October 2026 is excluded: the data cutoff is September 30, and October has only 7 records.
- Source: public EOIR records (EOIR FOIA Library, including tbl_schedule), 10,945,699 cases in the database. Judge decisions through September 30, 2026; BIA through September 30.
- Each outcome is credited to the judge and court of the final decision. In 23.5% of cases the first judge is not the final judge, so changes of venue are common.
- Reporting lag: the most recent month can fill in more over time, especially fields recorded after the decision, such as appeals (see section 10).
- For upcoming hearings, one case can have several hearings, so the monthly totals are not a count of unique people. The schedule comes from the latest EOIR FOIA package imported; October is left out of the chart because it had already started. Lawyer coverage is the share of pending cases with a Form E-28 on record.
This is not legal advice. It is a statistical analysis of public court data. The averages describe what already happened in thousands of cases; they do not predict yours. For decisions about your case, talk to an immigration lawyer or a DOJ-accredited representative.
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© 2026 Inmigreat LLC · Monthly EOIR court report · September 2026
