What is Judge Shana Chen's background?
EOIR's notice says that Shana Chen was appointed in March 2019. Judge Chen earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1998 from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor in 2001 from the Georgetown University Law Center. From 2006 to 2019, Judge Chen served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of New Jersey. From 2004 to 2005, she was a judicial law clerk in the Southern District of New York. From 2001 through 2004, Judge Chen worked as a litigation associate at two private law firms in New York City, McDermott, Will & Emery and Curtis, and Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle. Judge Chen is a member of the New Jersey and New York State Bars.
What does TRAC report about Judge Shana Chen'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 Shana Chen decided 898 asylum cases at Newark Immigration Court and denied 80.3 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 Shana Chen in 1 alphabetical row. The recorded title is 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 Newark Immigration Court. The relationship is recorded as listed 2026-10-20; it may include supervisory coverage rather than a merits-hearing assignment.