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

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

Immigration judges

Maria I. Akalski

Immigration Judge, Newark Immigration Court. Appointed December 2022.

StrictDenies far more often than the national average+30.4 points

Asylum record, FY 2021-2026

TRAC source →
Judge Akalski93.3%
Newark court70.3%
All judges nationally62.9%
Decisions on the merits
1,993
Asylum granted
64
Other relief granted
70
Denied
1,859
Against own court
+23.0 pts
Denial rate by fiscal year
FY23FY24FY25FY26
88%94%91%95%

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

Docket

Respondents represented by counsel: 61% (nationally, 81% are represented).

Most common nationalities: Ecuador (29.8%), Peru (20.8%), Colombia (15.8%), Brazil (10.9%), Honduras (5.9%).

Official biography

Maria I. Akalski was appointed as an Immigration Judge to begin hearing cases in December 2022. Judge Akalski ear ned a Bachelor of Arts in 1999 from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor in 2002 from New York University School of Law. From 2018 to 2022, she served as an assistant chief counsel, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in New York. From 2015 to 2018, she was an attorney in New York, working for Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy from 2017 to 2018, and as an associate counsel for immigration at WME-IMG from 2015 to 2016. From 2007 to 2015, she served in several roles with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, DHS: immigration services officer (2007- 2008); supervisory immigration services officer (2008-2011); section chief (2012-2014); and deputy field office director (2014-2015) in New York; and as a section chief (2011-2012) in Newark, New Jersey. From 2005 to 2007, she was an immigration attorney at Stephen Jeffries & Associates in New York. From 2002 to 2004, she was an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York. Judge Akalski is a member of the New York State Bar.

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 Newark

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.