New York · est. 2013Friday, September 4, 2026
Inside Immigration

Plain-language guides to US immigration, asylum and USCIS procedure.

Immigration judges

Elisa C. Brasil

Immigration Judge, San Francisco Immigration Court. Appointed May 2023.

Asylum record, FY 2021-2026

TRAC source →
Judge Brasil6.3%
San Francisco court28.4%
All judges nationally62.9%
Decisions on the merits
271
Asylum granted
241
Other relief granted
13
Denied
17
Against own court
-22.1 pts
Denial rate by fiscal year
FY24FY25
2%13%

Read from TRAC's chart to the nearest point. Years with fewer than 25 decisions are not shown.

Docket

Respondents represented by counsel: 97% (nationally, 81% are represented).

Most common nationalities: India (27.7%), Guatemala (19.9%), Mexico (13.3%), El Salvador (10.3%), China (5.2%).

Official biography

Elisa C. Brasil was appointed as an immigration judge to begin hearing cases in May 2023. Judge Brasil ear ned 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 (now known as University of California College of the Law, San Francisco). From 2009 to 2023, she was in private practice at the Law Offices of Elisa C. Brasil in San Francisco handling cases before EOIR and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security, including on a pro bono basis. From 2001 to 2009, she was an associate attorney at the Law Offices of Kaiser and Capeci in San Francisco where she also handled immigration cases on a pro bono basis. Judge Brasil is a member of the State Bar of California.

As published by the Executive Office for Immigration Review at appointment, via TRAC.

In the record

No published reporting or appellate decisions naming this judge have been collected yet.

Other judges at San Francisco

Court page →

About these figures. Denial rates describe outcomes in the cases a judge happened to hear, which differ by detention, nationality and representation. They are not a measure of fairness or competence. Method and sources are on the judges index.