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

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

Immigration judges

Samantha Begovich

Immigration Judge, San Francisco Immigration Court. Appointed October 2020 by William P. Barr.

Asylum record, FY 2021-2026

TRAC source →
Judge Begovich77.9%
San Francisco court28.4%
All judges nationally62.9%
Decisions on the merits
136
Asylum granted
26
Other relief granted
4
Denied
106
Against own court
+49.5 pts
Denial rate by fiscal year
FY26
78%

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

Docket

Respondents represented by counsel: 91% (nationally, 81% are represented).

Most common nationalities: Colombia (18.4%), India (15.4%), Mexico (14.7%), El Salvador (12.5%), China (8.1%).

Official biography

Attorney General William P. Barr appointed Samantha L. Begovich as an Immigration Judge in October 2020. Judge Begovich ear ned a Bachelor of Arts in 1991 from the University of California, San Diego, and a Juris Doctor in 1994 from Stanford Law School. From 1996 to2020, she served as a deputy district attorney for the Office of the District Attorney, County of San Diego, California. During this time, in 2015, she also served on detail as a special assistant deputy attorney general for the State of California, Department of Justice. From 1994 to 1996,she served as a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section, Department of Justice, entering on duty through the Attorney General's Honors Program. In 1994, while in the Attorney General's Honors Program, she served as a special assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S.Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. Judge Begovich is a member of the State Bar of California and the State Bar of Texas.

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.