Siddiqui v. Cissna
Siddiqui v. Cissna
Opinion of the Court
This cause is before the Court on the Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Dkt. No. 23). The motion is fully briefed, and the Court, being duly advised, DENIES the Defendants' motion for the reasons set forth below.
I. BACKGROUND
The Plaintiffs in this action are Dr. Bilal and Ms. Bushra Siddiqui, green-card holders from Pakistan who have three children who are United States citizens. The Plaintiffs allege that their Forms I-485, Applications to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (the "Adjustment Applications"), were improperly denied by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service ("USCIS") pursuant to a policy known as the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program ("CARRP"). According to the Plaintiffs, CARRP is a secret program established by Defendant USCIS in 2008 that prohibits USCIS adjudicators from approving applications for certain immigration benefits, including legal permanent resident status, when the applicant is deemed to pose a "national security concern" as broadly defined under CARRP. Instead, CARRP directs USCIS field officers to delay or deny applications selected for processing under CARRP. Under CARRP, the Plaintiffs allege, a person is considered a "national security concern" if he or she is determined to be a "Known or Suspected Terrorist," ("KST"), *775which includes all individuals listed in the Terrorism Screening Database. The Plaintiffs allege that CARRP violates the Immigration and Nationality Act,
The Plaintiffs moved for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, which the Court denied on October 25, 2018, on the ground that the Plaintiffs sought to obtain their ultimate relief by way of a preliminary injunction. Dkt. No. 27. In so doing, the Court also rejected the Defendants' arguments that the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear this action, following the reasoning of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Jafarzadeh v. Duke ,
The Defendants now move to dismiss the case on the ground that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.
II. LEGAL STANDARD
The Defendants seek dismissal of this action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. When reviewing a motion to dismiss brought under Rule 12(b)(1), the court "must accept as true all well-pleaded factual allegations, and draw reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff." Ezekiel v. Michel ,
III. DISCUSSION
The Defendants argue that
(i) any judgment regarding the granting of relief under section ... 1255 [ (Adjustment of status of nonimmigrant to that of person admitted for permanent residence) ] ... or
(ii) any other decision or action of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority for which is specified under this subchapter to be in the discretion of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security.
According to the Defendants, because USCIS's denial of the Adjustment Applications was a discretionary decision and the Plaintiffs are challenging that discretionary decision,
The Defendants make two arguments in support of their contention that USCIS's denial of the Adjustment Applications was discretionary. Whether the decision is discretionary is critical because, as *776the Seventh Circuit has noted with regard to
Plaintiffs speculatively allege that USCIS's denial of their adjustment applications was not an exercise of discretion but rather was a pretext to disguise its application to them of the purportedly illegal CARRP policy. See Compl. ¶¶ 1, 6-8, 15, 31-71. These allegations do not comport with the objective evidence appended to their Complaint. In their Complaint, Plaintiffs speculate upon "information and belief" that their applications were denied solely on account of the CARRP policy, see, e.g. , Compl. ¶¶ 90-92, simply because, according to them, their applications have "all the hallmarks of a CARRP case," evince a "rote imposition" of CARRP, "strongly suggest[ ]" that CARRP was applied, and that "USCIS likely ... considers [Siddiqui]" a terrorist. Compl. ¶¶ 8-9, 15, 94, respectively. Plaintiffs offer, "upon information and belief," their own rendition of what the CARRP policy means, yet they do not append a copy of the actual policy to their Complaint or otherwise direct the Court to the particular language therein from which they draw their interpretations. See, e.g. , Compl. ¶¶ 41, 51, 55-56, 58-59, 68, 71.
Dkt. No. 24 at 7. The Defendants, however, ignore the specificity of the Plaintiffs' allegations and they cite no cases to suggest that such materials must be appended at the pleading stage. As the Plaintiffs note, they have alleged that CARRP prohibits USCIS from approving applications filed by KSTs, that markings on Dr. Siddiqui's boarding passes when he travels by plane suggest he is considered a KST, and the Plaintiffs' reasons for believing that CARRP has been applied to their Adjustment Applications and that their denial was pretextual. Accordingly, the Court finds that the Plaintiffs have satisfied the pleading standard established in Twombly .
Second, the Defendants argue that the presumption of regularity should apply, as "the objective documentary evidence attached to the Complaint speaks for itself and shows that USCIS denied Plaintiffs' applications as a matter of discretion." Dkt. No. 24 at 8. The Defendants, citing cases such as Coleman v. PACCAR, Inc. ,
However, even if the Plaintiffs are ultimately unable to prove that the application of CARRP was not discretionary, they would still be able to challenge the propriety of the policy, assuming that they could *777prove it was applied to their Adjustment Applications.
It is for this reason that the Court finds the Defendants' arguments on this point unpersuasive. For example, the Defendants argue that two opinions from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Jafarzadeh I ,
Finally, the Defendants argue that the Court lacks jurisdiction because the Plaintiffs' challenge to the processes applied by the Defendants is "inextricably intertwined with the government's decision of how or whether to exercise its discretion." Dkt. No. 32 at 10. Relying on cases from other circuits addressing USCIS's *778implementation of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 ("AWA"), Pub. L. No. 109-248,
To summarize, the statute at issue,
(i) any judgment regarding the granting of relief under section ... 1255 [ (Adjustment of status of nonimmigrant to that of person admitted for permanent residence) ] ... or
(ii) any other decision or action of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority for which is specified under this subchapter to be in the discretion of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security.
The Court finds that the first prong does not bar review because the challenges are not to any judgment regarding the granting of relief under section 1255, but rather to a specific policy allegedly applied by the Defendants. Furthermore, the second prong does not bar review because the very question at issue is whether the enactment and application of CARRP was within the discretion granted to the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Court has jurisdiction to answer such predicate questions. Privett ,
IV. CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, the Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. No. 23, is DENIED .
SO ORDERED: 12/7/18
Were the Court to find that CARRP was not applied to the Plaintiffs' Adjustment Applications, that would raise other issues regarding the Plaintiffs' ability to bring their claims.
Notably, however, the Defendants do not challenge the specific relief sought in the Plaintiffs' prayer for relief in and of itself. If there are concerns about the specific relief, the Seventh Circuit has stated that "[i]t would be appropriate and indeed quite sensible for a judge confronting a complaint that does not demand proper relief to ascertain whether the plaintiff wants the improper relief sought in the complaint or nothing; if so, the complaint must be dismissed." Bontkowski ,
The Defendants also argue that McNary is distinguishable because the statute at issue in that case provided for less discretion than the statute at issue here, noting that "the authority to adjust status of eligible aliens under
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Bilal K. SIDDIQUI v. L. Francis CISSNA, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service
- Status
- Published