Churum v. Jaddou

3 District Judge Tana Lin 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE AMANUEL CHURUM, NO. 2:23-CV-00784-TL 17 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION TO HOLD CASE 18 IN ABEYANCE AND [PROPOSED] 19 v. ORDER UR M. JADDOU, NOTED FOR HEARING: 22 OCTOBER 19, 2023 23 Defendant.

26 Plaintiff and Defendant, by and through their counsel of record, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6 and Local Rules 7(d)(1), 10(g) and 16, hereby jointly stipulate and move to stay these proceedings for an additional thirty to sixty days.

32 Plaintiff brings this case pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act and Mandamus Act seeking an order compelling the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to adjudicate the Form I-730, Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition, that Plaintiff filed on behalf of the beneficiary, Bana Gebrezgi, in 2018. On August 8, 2023, the Parties jointly stipulated and moved to stay the proceedings for sixty days, and the Court granted the motion the same day, ordering a joint status report to be filed on or before October 9, 2023. See Dkt. Nos. 9, 10. On October 6, 2023, Defendant filed her Answer to the Complaint. Dkt. No. 15. On October 9, 2023, the Parties University Street submitted a Joint Status Report which stated that the Parties had agreed to meet and confer on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 and would follow with a Joint Status Report with a Proposed Case Schedule. At that meeting, Defendant informed Plaintiff that USCIS expects to interview the beneficiary of his Form I-730 on or around November 16, 2023.

9 In light of this information, the Parties have agreed to jointly stipulate and request that the Court say the proceedings for a minimum of an additional thirty days, up to sixty days if the interview with the beneficiary is scheduled within the initial thirty days. If the Court is amenable to this proposal, the Parties would submit a joint status report on or before November 20, 2023, informing the Court that the interview has been scheduled, at which point the stay could automatically continue until Monday, December 18, 2023.

21 Courts have “broad discretion” to stay proceedings. Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 (1997). “[T]he power to stay proceedings is incidental to the power inherent in every court to control the disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for counsel, and for litigants.” Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936); see also Fed. R. Civ. 29 P. 1. There is good cause for the requested stay. USCIS expects to interview the beneficiary on or around November 17, 2023. Following that interview, USCIS typically needs additional time to process the Form I-730 petition.

35 Accordingly, the parties jointly stipulate and request that the Court stay these proceedings until at least November 20, 2023, and until December 18, 2023 if the interview with Ms. Gebrezgi is scheduled on or before November 20, 2023.

600 University Street 3 DATED this 19th day of October, 2023.

5 GORDON TILDEN THOMAS & CORDELL LLP 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff 8 By s/ Franklin D. Cordell 9 Franklin D. Cordell, WSBA #26392 10 Katherine S. Wan, WSBA #58647 11 600 University Street, Suite 2915 12 Seattle, Washington 98101 13 206.467.6477 14 [email protected] 15 [email protected] 17 COVINGTON & BURLING LLP 18 Attorneys for Plaintiff 20 Gerald Hodgkins (pro hac vice) 21 Maura Sokol (pro hac vice) 22 850 Tenth Street, NW 23 Washington, DC 20001 24 Telephone: (202) 662-5263 25 [email protected] 26 [email protected] 28 TESSA M. GORMAN 29 Acting United States Attorney 31 s/ Michelle R. Lambert 32 MICHELLE R. LAMBERT, NYS #4666657 33 Assistant United States Attorney 34 United States Attorney’s Office 35 1201 Pacific Avenue, Suite 700 36 Tacoma, Washington 98402 37 Phone: 206-428-3824 38 Email: [email protected] 39 Attorneys for Defendants University Street 1 [PROPOSED] ORDER 3 The parties having stipulated and agreed, it is hereby so ORDERED. The Parties shall file a joint status report on or before November 20, 2023. If the Parties inform the Court that Ms. Gebrezgi’s interview has been scheduled on or before November 20, 2023, the stay will continue until December 18, 2023.

DATED this 20th day of October 2023.

14 A 16 Tana Lin 17 United States District Judge University Street