Boston Immigration Court Overview
The Boston Immigration Court is in Boston, Massachusetts. It specializes in resolving deportation cases for non-citizens in the entire state of Massachusetts. The state has only one immigration court, which is the Immigration Court in Boston, and it has 9 judges.
The court hears immigration cases in person. Besides, it hears cases for detainees in jails from Boston and other counties such as:
- Bristol County Correctional Facility
- Essex County House of Corrections
- Hampden County Jail
- Boston – Dedicated DOCket – Dd
- Boston Detained Juvenile Center
- Massachusetts Department of Corrections
- Boston Detained
- Boston Unaccompanied Juvenile
- Plymouth County Corretional Facility
- Boston, Massachusetts Federal Center
- Suffolk State Prison
This guide will help you to find all the information you need about the Boston Immigration Court including location, contact information, the judges, backlog, and other useful data and information.
Boston Immigration Court Contact Information
Address
JFK Federal Building
15 New Sudbury Street
Room 320
Boston, MA 02203
Phone number
617-565-3080
You can use this number to get in touch with the court clerks and/or the legal assistants for the judges.
For more information on how to check your immigration court date or status, click here.
Hours
The Boston Immigration Court opens its doors from 7:50 am to 4:30 pm. The Window Filing Hours are from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm and 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm (Monday – Thursday) and from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm and 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm (Friday).
Getting to the Boston Immigration Court
The Immigration Court in Boston is in John F. Kennedy Federal Building. The United States Postal Service Office and Boston Police District A-1 are near the court. From the Longfellow Bridge, you can take the Cambridge St directly to the court.
What the court looks like
From the front, the Boston court looks like this:
The back of the court building looks like this:
Immigration Judges in Boston
Currently, 9 judges serve at the Boston Immigration Court, with Mary Cheng as Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judge and Acting Assistant Chief Immigration Judge.
Here is the list of judges at the Immigration Court in Boston:
- Sarah E. Cade
- Brenda O’Malley
- Robin Feder
- Maureen O’Sullivan
- John M. Furlong Jr.
- Mario J. Sturla
- Paul M. Gagnon
- Gwendylan Tregerman
- Todd A. Masters
Judge Gwendylan Tregerman has the highest asylum denial rate (71.8%) and lowest grant rate in asylum cases (28.2%) while Judge Mario J. Sturla has the second-highest denial rate (64.2%) and second-lowest grant rate (35.8%). On the other hand, Judge Maureen O’Sullivan has the highest grant rate (75.6%) and lowest denial rate (24.4%).
Getting a Bond at the Boston Immigration Court
There is no immigration bond form available for the Boston Immigration Court.
Over the last 21 years, the Immigration Court in Boston has heard 21,425 bond cases. 14,327 cases of them were not granted while 7,098 cases were granted. In other words, the court has denied 66.8% of the cases while granted 33.2% of the cases.
Most often, bond hearing cases are for citizens of Guatemala with 2,654 cases presented before the court in the last 21 years. 1,715 of these cases were not granted while 939 were granted.
In second place comes the Dominican Republic with a total of 2,552 cases in the last 21 years. 2,139 cases were not granted while 413 cases were granted.
Asylum Decisions in Boston
Asylum Denial Rates in Boston
Over the last 21 years, 14,156 asylum cases were heard by the Boston Immigration Court. 11,950 cases of them were represented while 2,206 cases were not.
Asylum was denied in 5,502 cases of the 11,950 represented cases while 6,448 were granted.
The court has denied 46% of the represented cases over the last 21 years. It is an acceptable percentage compared to other immigration courts such as the El Paso Immigration Court and the Immigration Court in Los Angeles.
Nationalities
By nationality, Guatemala comes in 1st place with 2,000 asylum cases represented before the court. 1,216 of the 2,000 cases were denied while asylum was granted in 774 cases.
El Salvador comes in 2nd place with 1,727 asylum cases represented before the court. 956 of the 1,727 cases were denied while asylum was granted in 771 cases.
Backlog and Wait Time in Boston
There are 82,283 pending cases before the Boston Immigration Court, which is the only immigration court in the state of Massachusetts.
The average number of days the court takes to resolve an immigration case is 785. Compared to other immigration courts in other states, this processing time is good.
For example, the Immigration Court in Houston takes about 1,205 days to resolve a case while the San Antonio court takes 1,006 days. Notice that there are other courts in Texas other than the Houston and San Antonio Courts.
Free Lawyers for the Boston Immigration Court
9 organizations help the immigrants’ community in Boston and provide them with free legal services. Using a free lawyer can help to guide you through your case. Check our Immigration Court Page if you are looking for legal help with your immigration case.
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP)
They represent only the residents of Maine in asylum cases and removal proceedings before DHS.
Address:
489 Congress Street, 3rd Floor
Portland, ME 04101
Phone number: (207) 780-1593
Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR)
They represent clients that meet income eligibility guidelines, asylum applicants, and Special Immigrant Juveniles on a limited basis.
Address:
98 North Washington Street, Suite 106
Boston, MA 02114
Phone number: (617) 742-9296
Fax: (617) 742-9385
Related Topics
Need more helpful information? We've got you covered.
