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The Honorable Immigration Judge Roman Chaban

Oakdale, LA Immigration Court
Appointed October 2025 · President Donald Trump Attorney General Pamela Bondi
Appointed under a Republican administration
25%
of asylum claims granted on the merits
Based on 4 asylum decisions (grants + denials) since 2021. Fewer than 50 — treat this figure with caution.
This judge 25% National 31.8% Court 11.7%

Does a lawyer matter here?

Asylum grant rate by whether the person had legal representation.
With a lawyerrepresented · n=4
25%
Without a lawyerunrepresented
no data

Background

The Honorable Immigration Judge Roman Chaban earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1998 from the University of Notre Dame, a Juris Doctor in 2002 from Villanova University School of Law, and a Master of Laws, with distinction, in 2005 from the Georgetown University Law Center. He was appointed an immigration judge in 2025, serving at the Hyattsville Immigration Court from October to December 2025. From 2020 to 2025, he held various roles at EOIR, including senior counsel and acting deputy director in the Office of the Director, counsel to the assistant director in the Office of Policy, and senior counsel in the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge. Judge Chaban was subsequently appointed an Appellate Immigration Judge in December 2025.

Grant rates by type of relief

Share granted among merits decisions for each application type.
Asylum
25% n=4 Too few cases
Withholding / CAT
14.3% n=7 Too few cases
Cancellation — 42B (non-LPR)
0% n=1 Too few cases
Voluntary departure
98.4% n=64 Moderate

Bond decisions

Custody redetermination (bond) rulings since 2021. "Granted" means the judge lowered the bond, ordered release on recognizance, or otherwise granted the request.
66.7%
Bond requests granted
n=9 Too few cases
$10,000
Median bond when set
6 bonds with amounts
0%
Released on own recognizance
This judge 66.7%
Court average 36.4% · median $10,000
National 41.9% · median $6,500

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).
Oakdale, LA · home court
185 (98%)
Caseload & process (since 2021)
188
Completions per year
188 total
99.5%
Detained at decision
share of cases
1.9 mo
Median time to decision
from case start
0%
Ordered removed in absentia
person absent
2.7%
Decisions appealed to BIA
appeal rate
Appeals remanded or reversed
only 0 appeals — too few
How these numbers are calculated & important limitations

Source. U.S. Department of Justice EOIR immigration court records, released under FOIA (data through 2026-06-01), packaged as a public DuckDB database. The same underlying records used by TRAC and the Deportation Data Project. Judge appointment dates and appointing Attorneys General are compiled separately from EOIR/DOJ biographies.

Asylum grant rate. Grants ÷ (grants + denials) among asylum applications decided on the merits, for decisions completed since 2021. Cases that were withdrawn, abandoned, administratively closed, or not adjudicated are excluded.

Bond decisions. From EOIR's bond (custody redetermination) records since 2021. "Granted" = bond amount decreased, release on own recognizance, or amelioration granted; "denied" = no change, no bond set, amelioration denied, or denied as moot. Withdrawn requests, jurisdictional denials, and bond increases are excluded from the grant rate. Decision codes follow the Deportation Data Project codebook; EOIR's own DHS "initial bond" field is unreliably filled and is not used. The median bond reflects decisions where the judge set or adjusted a dollar amount.

Representation. A person is counted as "represented" if a respondent's attorney (EOIR-28) appeared at the court level.

The map & appointing party. Each state is shaded by the mix of appointing administrations of the immigration judges currently sitting at the court(s) covering that state — blue where more were appointed under Democratic administrations, red where more under Republican ones. States with no immigration court of their own are drawn with diagonal stripes and take the mix of the court(s) with administrative control over them, per EOIR's administrative control list (e.g., Montana, Idaho, and Alaska → Portland, OR; Wyoming → Denver; the Dakotas → Fort Snelling, MN; Mississippi is split between Memphis and New Orleans). EOIR defines control by DHS district offices and detention facilities rather than clean geographic lines, so in states with several courts the map does not draw internal boundaries; instead the hover and state pages break the numbers down court by court. Where the control list assigns dockets by custody status, each court is labeled non-detained, detained (courts sitting at or primarily serving detention facilities and Service Processing Centers), or all cases; which court hears a given case depends on custody status and where DHS filed it. Party is taken from the appointing Attorney General (or President). This is emphatically not a measure of how judges rule. Appointing administration is a weak-to-nonexistent predictor of individual case outcomes, and judges appointed by any administration span the full range of grant rates. The map is offered only to show the composition of the bench, not to forecast decisions.

Courts where a judge decides & WebEx links. The list of a judge's hearing locations counts the courts (EOIR base city) on that judge's completed cases in the period. Internet-based hearing (WebEx) links and telephonic access codes are reproduced from EOIR's public Find an Immigration Court page and apply only to parties with a scheduled hearing.

Guardrails. Every figure shows its sample size and a confidence label (High ≥200, Moderate 50–199). A rate based on fewer than 50 merits decisions is still shown but marked with a icon meaning it is statistically unreliable and should not be read as a stable pattern.

  • These are past patterns, not predictions. They cannot tell you how a specific case will be decided.
  • This is not a judge-shopping tool. Respondents generally cannot choose their judge.
  • Judges hear different mixes of cases (detained vs. not, nationalities, represented vs. not), which strongly affect outcomes and are not fully controlled for here.
  • The most recent months are incomplete; recent-year figures may shift as more records are released.
  • Government data contains coding errors and omissions; small differences between judges may not be meaningful.