Ayanbadejo v. Chertoff

• Decision Date: 08 February 2008
• Docket Number: No. 06-20866.,06-20866.
• Citation: Ayanbadejo v. Chertoff, 517 F.3d 273 (5th Cir. 2008)
• Parties: John AYANBADEJO; Felicia Ayanbadejo, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Michael CHERTOFF, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

517 F.3d 273

John AYANBADEJO; Felicia Ayanbadejo, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Michael CHERTOFF, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 06-20866.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

February 8, 2008.

Ike Nkem Atah Waobikeze, Waobikeze & Associates, Houston, TX, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Samuel. G. Longoria, Houston, TX, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before WIENER, BARKSDALE, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiffs-Appellants John Ayanbadejo and Felicia Malveaux Ayanbadejo filed this action against Defendants-Appellees Michael Chertoff, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"), and District Director Sharon A. Hudson of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS"), which is part of DHS, and that agency, seeking declaratory, injunctive, and mandamus relief from adverse immigration decisions by these officials. As the district court incorrectly concluded that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review the denial of Felicia's I-130 visa petition, we reverse the decision of the district court granting the government's motion to dismiss and remand for a new trial.

I. Facts and Proceedings

John, a citizen of Nigeria, met Felicia, a United States citizen residing in Beaumont, Texas, during a visit to the United States on a tourist visa in December 1996. The couple married on February 10, 1997. Less than a month after their marriage, Felicia filed a Form I-130 "Petition for Alien Relative" to have John classified as an "immediate relative."¹ John subsequently filed a Form I-485 "Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status" to become a lawful permanent resident.²

On December 5, 2000, after an investigation by the USCIS raised doubts about the validity of the Ayanbadejos' marriage, the USCIS issued a notice of intent to deny Felicia's I-130 petition and John's I-485 application.³ On April 17, 2001, Felicia filed a second I-130 petition seeking an immediate relative visa for John, and John filed a second I-485 application requesting adjustment of his status. On June 26, 2002, the USCIS issued a notice of intent to deny Felicia's second I-130 petition on the same ground as its previous notice of intent to deny—that the Ayanbadejos' union was not bona fide but was a sham marriage, entered into solely for immigration purposes. Felicia filed a response to USCIS's notice with additional documentation. Unpersuaded, on October 9, 2002, the USCIS issued a notice of denial of the Felicia's I-130 petition and John's I-485 application.

When the USCIS denied the Ayanbadejos' I-130 petition and I-485 application based on its finding that their marriage was entered into for the purposes of circumventing immigration laws, the Ayanbadejos filed an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") of the United States Department of Justice. On June 16, 2005, the BIA affirmed the USCIS's decision without a written order. John subsequently filed a petition for review of the BIA's decision with us, which we dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

The Ayanbadejos then filed a complaint in district court. The government filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,⁴ arguing that the REAL ID Act of 2005, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(13), eliminated the district court's right to review the Ayanbadejos' I-130 petition and I-485 application.

The Ayanbadejos filed a motion to amend their complaint, in which they alleged that: (1) their constitutional rights had been violated when they were denied a full and fair hearing before the USCIS and BIA; (2) their rights under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") had been violated when they requested, but did not receive, their immigration records within 30 days of filing a request, as required by FOIA; and (3) their rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR") were violated by the errors and omissions of the USCIS and BIA.

The district court held that: (1) the immigration decisions involving the Ayanbadejos did not violate their constitutional rights because the correct standards were employed in determining that the couple failed to provide sufficient evidence that their marriage was bona fide; (2) the UCIS's denials of Felicia's I-130 petition and John's I-485 application were within its discretion and therefore not subject to judicial review; (3) the Ayanbadejos' FOIA claim was moot because the records they requested had been produced; and (4) their claim under the ICCPR did not present a cognizable cause of action. For these reasons, the court denied the Ayanbadejos' motion to amend their complaint to present their FOIA and ICCPR claims, and granted the government's motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The Ayanbadejos filed a motion for new trial, which the district court denied. The Ayanbadejos then timely filed a notice of appeal.

II. Standard of Review

We review de novo the district court's grant of a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1).⁵ We review the district court's decision to grant or deny a motion to amend for abuse of discretion.⁶

III. Analysis

The Ayanbadejos raise three issues on appeal: (1) whether the district court erred in granting the government's motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because § 1252(a)(2)(B) precluded its review of the Ayanbadejos' I-130 petition and I-485 application; (2) whether the court erred in denying the Ayanbadejos' motion to amend their complaint to include their FOIA and ICCPR claims; and (3) whether the court erred in denying the Ayanbadejos' motion for a new trial. Issues Two and Three are without merit, but our analysis of Issue One, which presents a matter of first impression, leads us to conclude that the district court did, in fact, have subject matter jurisdiction to review Felicia's I-130 petition, requiring us to reverse the district court's ruling and remand to the district' court for a new trial.

A. Subject Matter Jurisdiction

The Ayanbadejos contend that the district court incorrectly concluded that § 1252(a)(2)(B) divested it of the jurisdiction to hear their claims. We agree with the Ayanbadejos, at least in part. Our decision in Zhao v. Gonzales,⁷ which provides a clear and consistent roadmap for interpreting § 1252(a)(2)(B), is directly applicable to the instant case, and leads us to conclude that, although the district court did not have jurisdiction to review the determinations made with respect to John's I-485 application, the court did have jurisdiction to review the determinations made with respect to Felicia's I-130 petition.

First, the district court correctly held that, under § 1252(a)(2)(B), it did not have jurisdiction to review the decisions to deny John's I-485 application because these determinations were "in the discretion of immigration officials acting under authority of the Attorney General. Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii) provides that "no court shall have jurisdiction to review ... any other decision or action of the Attorney General or 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...."⁸ In Zhao, we interpreted this language to mean that courts are precluded from reviewing those decisions "specified in the statute" to be discretionary.⁹ Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(i) explicitly places "any judgment regarding the granting of relief under ... section 1255," which provides the statutory authority for I-485 applications, in this category of discretionary decisions that no courts have jurisdiction to review. The law makes clear that we and the district court lack jurisdiction over determinations made with respect to an I-485 application for permanent resident status under § 1255.¹⁰ The district court thus correctly held that it lacked jurisdiction to review the denial of John's I-485 application.¹¹

Felicia's I-130 petition is a different story. Even though all judgments regarding relief under § 1255, including reviews of I-485 applications, are specifically categorized as discretionary and non-reviewable by § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i), I-130 petitions are authorized by § 1154(a)(1)(A)(i), not § 1255, and are not mentioned in § 1252(a)(2)(B)(i). We have not explicitly determined whether district courts have jurisdiction to review the denial of I-130 petitions, but in Zhao we reasoned that Congress included the phrase "specified under this subchapter" in § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii) for the purpose of precisely identifying which discretionary decisions are beyond judicial review.¹² Zhao emphasizes that this language was meant to delineate definitively which types of decisions are discretionary, and thus non-reviewable, by a court.¹³ The language of other federal regulations addressing I-130 petitions might lead one to infer that I-130 determinations are discretionary, and thus non-reviewable,¹⁴ but, following Zhao, we decline to abdicate our jurisdiction based on any such extra-statutory authority.¹⁵ Categorizing I-130 petition determinations as discretionary based on authority found in an implementing regulation would contradict the plain statutory language of § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii), which specifies that courts are only stripped of authority to review decisions designated as discretionary by the statute. Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(i) simply does not include I-130 petition determinations in the discretionary category that expressly includes determinations of I-485 applications. Following our clear precedent in Zhao, our inquiry need not go any further. Determinations regarding the validity of marriage for I-130 petition purposes are not discretionary within the meaning of § 1252(a)(2)(B), and thus are subject to review by courts.¹⁶ The district court incorrectly concluded that it did not have...