Appointed May 2023 · President Joe Biden→ Attorney General Merrick Garland
3 years on the immigration bench
Appointed under a Democratic administration
Background
The Honorable Immigration Judge Elisa C Brasil earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1988 from the University of California Santa Barbara and a Juris Doctor in 1993 from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. From 2001 to 2009 she worked as an associate attorney at the Law Offices of Kaiser and Capeci in San Francisco, and from 2009 to 2023 she operated the Law Offices of Elisa C. Brasil in San Francisco, handling immigration cases before EOIR and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She is a member of the State Bar of California.
Caseload & process (since 2021)
377
Completions per year
2,262 total
0.9%
Detained at decision
share of cases
28.1 mo
Median time to decision
from case start
20.2%
Ordered removed in absentia
person absent
1.4%
Decisions appealed to BIA
appeal rate
—
Appeals remanded or reversed
only 8 appeals — too few
Grant rates by type of relief
Share granted among merits decisions for each application type, since 2021.
Asylum
89.4%
274 decisions High confidence
Withholding / CAT
22.4%
67 decisions Moderate
Cancellation — 42B (non-LPR)
60%⚠
5 decisions Too few cases
Cancellation — 42A (LPR)
100%⚠
4 decisions Too few cases
Adjustment of status (245)
100%⚠
10 decisions Too few cases
Voluntary departure
84.6%⚠
13 decisions Too few cases
89.4%
of asylum claims granted on the merits High confidence
Based on 274 asylum decisions (grants + denials) since 2021.
This judge
89.4%
This court
68.2%
National average
31.8%
0%100% granted
In the top 1% of the 825 judges nationally with enough cases to compare.
Does a lawyer matter here?
Asylum grant rate by whether the person had legal representation.
With a lawyerrepresented · 268 decisions since 2021
90.7%
Without a lawyer⚠unrepresented · 6 decisions since 2021
33.3%
Asylum grant rate over time
Each point is that calendar year's grant rate, back to 2015 where the judge was deciding cases — the longer career view. Dashed grey line = current national average (31.8%). Headline rates above use 2021 – today.
Courts where this judge has decided cases
Hearing locations for cases this judge completed since 2021, by number of decisions.
Many judges hear cases from more than one court (detained facilities, video dockets, or reassignments).