Heirh v. Mayorkas

1 District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE AMANDEEP SINGH HEIRH, et al., No. 2:23-cv-1657-RSM Plaintiffs, STIPULATED MOTION TO HOLD 10 CASE IN ABEYANCE AND ORDER v. 11 Noted for Consideration: ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, et al., December 21, 2023 Defendants.

Plaintiffs brought this litigation pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act and Mandamus Act seeking, inter alia, to compel the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) adjudicate their Forms I-589, Applications for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. Defendants’ response to the Complaint is currently due on January 8, 2024. The parties are currently working towards a resolution to this litigation. For good cause, the parties request that the Court hold the case in abeyance until May 23, 2024.

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. 2 P. 1.

3 With additional time, this case may be resolved without the need of further judicial intervention. USCIS has scheduled Plaintiff Guriqbal Singh Heihr’s asylum interview for January 24, 2024, and Plaintiff Amandeep Singh Heirh’s asylum interview for January 31, 2024. USCIS agrees to diligently work towards completing the adjudications within 120 days of the interviews, absent unforeseen or exceptional circumstances that would require additional time for adjudications. If the adjudications are not completed within that time, USCIS will provide a status report to the Court. Plaintiffs will submit all supplemental documents and evidence, if any, to USCIS seven to ten days prior to the interview date. Plaintiffs recognize that failure to submit documents prior to the interview may require the interview(s) to be rescheduled and the adjudication(s) delayed. If needed, Plaintiffs will bring an interpreter to the interviews, otherwise the interviews will need to be rescheduled and the adjudication delayed. After the interviews, USCIS will need time to adjudicate Plaintiffs’ asylum applications. Once the applications are adjudicated, Plaintiffs will dismiss the case with each party to bear their own litigation costs and attorneys’ fees. Accordingly, the parties request this abeyance to allow USCIS to conduct Plaintiffs’ asylum interviews and then process their asylum applications.

18 As additional time is necessary for this to occur, the parties request that the Court hold the case in abeyance until May 31, 2024. The parties will submit a joint status report on or before May 31, 2024.

21 // // // Dated: December 21, 2023 Respectfully submitted, 2 TESSA M. GORMAN Acting United States Attorney s/Michelle R. Lambert 4 MICHELLE R. LAMBERT, NYS #4666657 Assistant United States Attorney 5 1201 Pacific Avenue, Suite 700 Tacoma, Washington 98402 6 Phone: 206-428-3824 Email: [email protected] 7 Attorneys for Defendants 8 I certify that this memorandum contains words, in compliance with the Local 9 Civil Rules.

10 s/ Bart Klein BART KLEIN WSBA# 10909 11 Law Offices of Bart Klein First Avenue, #500 12 Seattle, Washington 98104 Phone: 206-755-5651 13 Email: [email protected] Attorney for Plaintiffs

[PROPOSED] ORDER The case is held in abeyance until May 31, 2024. The parties shall submit a joint status report on or before May 31, 2024. It is so ORDERED.

DATED this 2nd day of January, 2024.

A RICARDO S. MARTINEZ 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE