Agarwal v. Napolitano

Decision Date09 October 2009
Docket NumberNo. EP-07-CV-373-KC.,EP-07-CV-373-KC.
Citation663 F.Supp.2d 528
PartiesAjai AGARWAL and Divya Agarwal, Plaintiffs, v. Janet NAPOLITANO, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, et al., Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Western District of Texas

Felipe D.J. Millan, Felipe D.J. Millan, P.C., El Paso, TX, for Plaintiffs.

Gary L. Anderson, Assistant United States Attorney, San Antonio, TX, for Defendants.

ORDER

KATHLEEN CARDONE, District Judge.

On this day, the Court considered Defendants' "Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs' Complaint And/Or For Summary Judgment" ("Motion") (Doc. No. 39). For the reasons set forth herein, the Motion is DENIED. Additionally, the decisions of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, dated May 4, 2009, denying the naturalization petitions of Ajai and Divya Agarwal, are hereby VACATED as ultra vires.

I. BACKGROUND

Ajai and Divya Agarwal ("Agarwals") are natives and citizens of India. Defs.' Reply Ex. A at 13 (Doc. No. 46). Ajai Agarwal first entered the United States on a J-1 visa on June 29, 1992. Defs.' Mot. 1. Divya Agarwal first entered the United States on a J-2 visa on August 23, 1992. Id. at 2. Ajai and Divya Agarwal currently live in El Paso, Texas; Ajai works as a physician at the Montwood Medical Center, and Divya works as an office manager. Pls.' Compl. ¶¶ 8-9 (Doc. No. 2).

The Agarwals applied to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS") for naturalization as U.S. citizens in July 2004, were interviewed in November 2004, and passed their language, history and civics tests at that time. Defs.' Answer ¶¶ 8-9. No action having been taken on their application for some time, the Agarwals proceeded to file suit in this Court on October 29, 2007, naming various CIS and Department of Homeland Security officials as Defendants,1 seeking relief from agency delay, and requesting judicial determination of their citizenship applications under 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b). Pls.' Compl. ¶¶ 5-6.

On May 4, 2009, during the pendency of this suit, the CIS issued decisions denying the Agarwals' applications for naturalization. Defs.' Mot. 3; Id. Exs. 1, 2; Defs.' Reply Ex. A at 1, 9. On June 9, 2009, the CIS served Ajai and Divya Agarwal each, by mail, a Notice to Appear in Removal Proceedings. Defs.' Reply Ex. A at 5; Id. Ex. E. On June 30, 2009, the CIS filed the instant Motion seeking, in the alternative, dismissal of the Agarwals' suit, or a grant of summary judgment declaring them ineligible for citizenship. Defs.' Mot. 1.

II. DISCUSSION
A. Standards

The CIS moves for dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on mootness, for dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted predicated on the pendency of removal proceedings, and for summary judgment based on the Agarwals ineligibility for citizenship. The Court will address each claim in turn.

Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Peoples Nat'l Bank v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States, 362 F.3d 333, 336 (5th Cir.2004). Without jurisdiction conferred by statute, federal courts lack the power to adjudicate claims. Id. Furthermore, "[i]f a case has been rendered moot, a federal court has no constitutional authority to resolve the issues that it presents." Envtl. Conservation Org. v. Dallas, 529 F.3d 519, 525 (5th Cir.2008). When determining whether a case is moot, courts are advised that "[a]s a general rule, any set of circumstances that eliminates actual controversy after the commencement of a lawsuit renders that action moot." Id. at 527 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). A party may challenge a district court's subject matter jurisdiction by filing a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1).

A motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), on the other hand, challenges a complaint on the basis that it fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. FED. R. CIV. P. 12(b) (6). In ruling on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court must accept well-pleaded facts as true, and view them in a light most favorable to the plaintiff. Calhoun v. Hargrove, 312 F.3d 730, 733 (5th Cir.2002); Collins v. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 224 F.3d 496, 498 (5th Cir.2000). A Rule 12(b)(6) motion which presents "matters outside the pleadings . . . must be treated as one for summary judgment under Rule 56." FED. R. CIV. P. 12(d); see also Minvielle v. IMC, 380 F.Supp.2d 755 (W.D.La.2004).

Summary judgment is required "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." FED. R. CIV. P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Warfield v. Byron, 436 F.3d 551, 557 (5th Cir.2006). The substantive law identifies which facts are material. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Ellison v. Software Spectrum, Inc., 85 F.3d 187, 189 (5th Cir.1996). A dispute about a material fact is genuine only "if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505; Ellison, 85 F.3d at 189.

"[The] party seeking summary judgment always bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of [the record] which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact." Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548; Wallace v. Texas Tech. Univ., 80 F.3d 1042, 1046-1047 (5th Cir.1996). If the moving party meets its initial burden, the nonmoving party "must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." FED. R. CIV. P. 56(e). The nonmovant's burden may not be satisfied by "conclusory allegations, unsubstantiated assertions, or only a scintilla of evidence." Warfield, 436 F.3d at 557 (quoting Freeman v. Texas Dep't of Crim. Justice, 369 F.3d 854, 860 (5th Cir.2004)). Factual controversies are to be resolved in favor of the nonmovant, "but only when there is an actual controversy, that is, when both parties have submitted evidence of contradictory facts." Little v. Liquid Air Corp., 37 F.3d 1069, 1075 (5th Cir.1994) (en banc). Thus, the ultimate inquiry in a summary judgment motion is "whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

B. Mootness

The CIS argues that the Agarwals' claims are moot because they received all of the relief that they were entitled to when their naturalization applications were decided by the CIS on May 4, 2009. Defs.' Mot. 5. This claim rests on the assumption that the CIS retained the necessary authority and jurisdiction to effectively decide these applications on that date, and the CIS so asserts. Defs.' Reply 3.

Petitions for naturalization, when filed, are initially under the sole jurisdiction of the CIS, which has the power to grant or deny naturalization to an alien applicant. See 8 U.S.C. § 1421(a). After this initial period of CIS jurisdiction, a district court may obtain jurisdiction over a petition either by way of appeal from an unfavorable agency decision, 8 U.S.C. § 1421(c) or, in cases where the agency has not acted on an application within 120 days of the alien's in-person interview, by way of a suit filed under 8 U.S.C. § 1447(b). The key question is whether an alien's filing of a § 1447(b) suit vests exclusive jurisdiction over the petition in the district court hearing the suit, implicitly divesting the CIS of all power in the matter, or whether the filing of such a suit creates concurrent jurisdiction over the matter, shared between the district court and the tardy agency.

This Court holds that the filing of a § 1447(b) suit vests the Court with exclusive jurisdiction over the matter. The weight of precedent as well as reason falls on this side. First, regarding precedent, the two Circuit Courts of Appeal which have directly addressed this question—the Fourth and Ninth Circuits—have both held for exclusive jurisdiction. See Etape v. Chertoff, 497 F.3d 379 (4th Cir.2007) ("§ 1447(b) vests exclusive jurisdiction in the district court"); see also United States v. Hovsepian, 359 F.3d 1144 (9th Cir.2004) (en banc) (same). The Tenth Circuit has also agreed with this premise, though in obiter dictum. Al-Maleki v. Holder, 558 F.3d 1200, 1205 n. 2 (10th Cir.2009) (finding the reasoning of the Fourth and Ninth Circuits to be persuasive such that it "casts serious doubt on the Government's concurrent jurisdiction argument"). While the Fifth Circuit has not directly addressed this issue, this Court has recently held that exclusive jurisdiction lies, and the Court sees no persuasive reason to reverse its position now. Castro v. Napolitano, No. 3:09-cv-39 (W.D.Tex. Sept. 16, 2009) (El Paso Div.) (Montalvo, J.). At least one other district court in the Fifth Circuit has also held for exclusive jurisdiction. See Dimopoulos v. Blakeway, No. 2:07-cv-127, 2007 WL 922224 (S.D.Tex. Mar. 23, 2007). None have held for concurrent jurisdiction.

Moving further afield, this Court has found eighteen other cases in which a district court ruled in favor of exclusive jurisdiction. See Al-Atiyeh v. Swacina, 650 F.Supp.2d 1244 (S.D.Fla.2009) (holding that a § 1447(b) suit vests the district court with exclusive jurisdiction); Escobar v. Chertoff, No. 07-cv-10851, 2008 WL 2066938 (D.Mass. May 14, 2008) (same); Taalebinezhaad v. Chertoff, 581 F.Supp.2d 243 (D.Mass.2008); Khezri v. Ward, No. 4:07-cv-148, 2008 WL 867740 (N.D.Okla. Mar. 27, 2008) (same); Haring v. Att'y General, No. 6:07-cv-1764, 2008 WL 822003 (M.D.Fla. Mar. 26, 2008) ...

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