Filed Date: May 18, 2016
Closed Date: 2017
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On May 18, 2016, thirteen lawful permanent residents (LPRs) filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Plaintiffs sued U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), and the Declaratory Judgment Act. The plaintiffs, represented by a private immigration law firm, claimed that USCIS had unlawfully delayed adjudicating their naturalization applications by classifying them under its CARRP (Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program) policy. The plaintiffs sought an injunction compelling USCIS to dismantle CARRP policies and to adjudicate the plaintiffs' applications, and a declaratory judgment that CARRP violated the INA, APA, the Naturalization Clause of the Constitution, and the Due Process Clause under the Fifth Amendment. Subsequently, on June 21, 2016, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, increasing the number of plaintiffs to twenty. The plaintiffs were all from countries with significant Muslim populations — Albania, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Nigeria, Bosnia, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mali, and Sudan.
USCIS's CARRP policy directed adjudicating officers to identify any immigration benefits application by any applicant that might implicate a "national security concern." When so classified, the officers were required to delay or deny the application. Although the total number of people subject to CARRP is not known, USCIS data revealed that between 2008 and 2012, more than 19,000 people from twenty-one Muslim-majority countries or regions were subjected to CARRP. CAARP's definition of a "national security concern" was broader than the INA's, drawing on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database, which the plaintiffs alleged was based on vague, overbroad, and uncorroborated information.
All the plaintiffs in this case submitted naturalization applications that were subject to CAARP. Some of the plaintiffs had already also had naturalization interviews and examinations, part of the statutorily defined naturalization process under the INA. That statute specified that USCIS must process a naturalization application within 180 days from the filing date and within 120 days of the interview and examination date. All the plaintiffs had been waiting for a decision for longer than the 180-day period -- in one case, for more than two years. Further, USCIS did not notify plaintiffs that they had been classified under CARRP, nor did the plaintiffs have an opportunity to respond to this action.
In addition to the INA claim, the plaintiffs challenged CARRP as a violation of the APA due to USCIS's arbitrary and capricious action and action contrary to law. CARRP never passed through the APA's notice-and-comment rulemaking process, nor did Congress approve it. The plaintiffs alleged that the INA, rather than USCIS's additional non-statutory criteria, must govern naturalization entitlements because the Naturalization Clause of the Constitution empowers Congress to set naturalization law through statutes.
After the plaintiffs filed their complaints, during the rest of 2016, the individual plaintiffs filed three voluntary dismissal motions, after either USCIS had adjudicated their applications or the particular plaintiffs themselves had withdrawn them. By the end of 2016, only one plaintiff remained. On December 19, 2016, the defendants moved to dismiss the case, arguing that USCIS had already denied this plaintiff's application in October 2016, and so the Court lacked jurisdiction. In response, on January 3, 2017, the remaining plaintiff opposed the defendants' motion to dismiss, arguing that the Court retained jurisdiction because the litigation had started before the USCIS adjudication. The defendants replied on January 10.
On June 1, the defendants notified the Court that a federal grand jury had indicted the plaintiff for selling contraband cigarettes.
On August 24, the Court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the case. The Court held that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. The Court stated that the plaintiff had failed to challenge USCIS's adjudication jurisdiction while the amended complaint was pending; that USCIS had already adjudicated and denied her naturalization application, thereby making the case moot; and that an appeal to the denial was pending in the agency, preventing ripeness. Further, the plaintiff lacked standing to procure a declaratory judgment as to CAARP's validity, due to unlikelihood of future injury. The Court thus dismissed the case without prejudice. 2017 WL 3658916.
This case is now closed.
Summary Authors
Ava Morgenstern (1/18/2018)
For PACER's information on parties and their attorneys, see: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6192733/parties/arapi-v-us-citizenship-immigration-services/
Ross, John Andrew (Missouri)
West, Robert Andrew (Missouri)
Hacking, James O. (Missouri)
Hollis, Christopher W. (District of Columbia)
Rund, Jane (Missouri)
Ross, John Andrew (Missouri)
West, Robert Andrew (Missouri)
See docket on RECAP: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6192733/arapi-v-us-citizenship-immigration-services/
Last updated March 3, 2024, 3 a.m.
State / Territory: Missouri
Case Type(s):
Special Collection(s):
Key Dates
Filing Date: May 18, 2016
Closing Date: 2017
Case Ongoing: No
Plaintiffs
Plaintiff Description:
In the initial complaint, plaintiffs were thirteen lawful permanent residents (LPRs) from Albania, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Nigeria, Bosnia, whose naturalization applications USCIS delayed under its Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CAARP) policy. In the first amended complaint, plaintiffs were twenty LPRs from Albania, Pakistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Nigeria, Bosnia, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mali, and Sudan.
Plaintiff Type(s):
Public Interest Lawyer: No
Filed Pro Se: No
Class Action Sought: No
Class Action Outcome: Not sought
Defendants
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Federal
Case Details
Causes of Action:
Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 551 et seq.
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101 et seq.
Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201
Constitutional Clause(s):
Available Documents:
Outcome
Prevailing Party: Defendant
Nature of Relief:
Source of Relief:
Issues
General:
Discrimination-basis:
National origin discrimination
Immigration/Border:
National Origin/Ethnicity: