What is Judge Craig DeFoe's background?
EOIR's notice says that Craig DeFoe was appointed in March 2019. Judge Defoe earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2004 from Washington University in Saint Louis and a Juris Doctor in 2007 from Indiana University, McKinney School of Law. From 2016 to 2019, he served as an attorney with the Office of Chief Counsel, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, in Chicago. From 2009 to 2016, he served as a trial attorney for the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL), Civil Division,. He joined OIL through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. From 2007 to 2009, he served as a staff attorney in the Staff Attorney’s Office, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in Atlanta.
What does TRAC report about Judge Craig DeFoe's asylum decisions?
TRAC, a research center that began at Syracuse University, reports that for FY 2021 - 2026 (data covers the first 9 months of fiscal year 2026), Judge Craig DeFoe decided 1169 asylum cases at Chicago Immigration Court and denied 64.1 percent, based on its report of Aug 27, 2026. These are past figures for one court. They do not predict your case, which turns on your facts, evidence, nationality and representation, and TRAC cautions against simple comparisons between judges at different courts. Read the full report at TRAC, and talk to a lawyer about your own case.
What the official record establishes
The source lists the name Craig DeFoe in 1 alphabetical row. The recorded title is Assistant Chief Immigration Judge. The record is not an appointment history or an employment certification.
Dated court associations
EOIR’s court-specific tables associate this entry with Chicago Immigration Court; Fort Snelling Immigration Court; Kansas City Immigration Court; Omaha Immigration Court. The relationship is recorded as listed 2026-10-20; it may include supervisory coverage rather than a merits-hearing assignment.