Brinklys v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 30 March 2016
• Docket Number: Case No. 3:14-cv-1211-J-34MCR
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida
• Parties: Sigitas Brinklys & Aurelija Caruso, Plaintiffs, v. Jeh Johnson, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, et al., Defendants.

175 F.Supp.3d 1338

Sigitas Brinklys & Aurelija Caruso, Plaintiffs,

v.Jeh Johnson, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 3:14-cv-1211-J-34MCR

United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Jacksonville Division.

Signed March 30, 2016

David Stoller, Law Offices of David Stoller, PA, Orlando, FL, for Plaintiffs.

Jason Paul Mehta, US Attorney's Office, Jacksonville, FL, Sherease Rosalyn Pratt, US Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

ORDER

MARCIA MORALES HOWARD

, United States District Judge

THIS CAUSE is before the Court on (1) Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 21; “Defendants' Motion”), filed on May 11, 2015; and (2) Plaintiff's [sic] Motion for Summary Judgment and Supporting Memorandum of Law (Doc. 22; “Plaintiffs' Motion”), also filed on May 11, 2015. Defendants—Jeh Johnson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Loretta Lynch,¹ United States Attorney General; Leon Rodriguez, Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services; and Juan Osuna, Director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review—filed Defendants' Opposition to Plaintiffs' Cross Motion for Summary[ ]Judgment (Doc. 26; “Defendants' Response”) on June 25, 2015. Plaintiffs, Sigitas Brinklys and Aurelija Caruso, filed Plaintiffs' Response to Cross Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 27; “Plaintiffs' Response”) on June 25, 2015. Accordingly, this matter is ripe for review.

I. Background

On February 10, 2000, Plaintiff Aurelija Gotautiene(now Caruso)² and Raimondas Kalinauskas, both natives and citizens of Lithuania, arrived in the United States and were admitted in New York City as tourists. Administrative Record (Doc. 16; “Tr.”) at 782, 864. Aurelija married United States citizen Frank Caruso on February 21, 2003, Tr. 782, and Kalinauskas married United States citizen Luzmaria Martinez on April 22, 2003, Tr. 881. On May 19, 2003, Caruso filed form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (“I-130 Petition”), on Aurelija's behalf. Tr. 881. That same day, Martinez filed an I-130 Petition on Kalinauskas's behalf. Tr. 881.

On August 22, 2007, before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) decided Caruso's I-130 Petition, Aurelija and Caruso divorced, automatically terminating the petition. Tr. 792, 864. A little more than two months later, on November 2, 2007, Aurelija married Plaintiff Sigitas Brinklys. Tr. 782, 791. Brinklys filed an I-130 Petition on Aurelija's behalf on February 21, 2008, Tr. 782, and Aurelija filed form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (“I-485 Application”), that same day, see Doc. 1 (“Complaint”) ¶ 17; Doc. 12 (“Answer”) ¶ 17.

On May 23, 2011, USCIS issued a Notice of Intent to Deny Alien Relative Visa Petition (“NOID”) indicating that it intended to deny Brinklys's I-130 Petition. Tr. 1. The NOID identified information that caused USCIS to “doubt the actual intentions of the marriages used for applying for immigration benefits.” Id. USCIS relied heavily on a July 10, 2006, memorandum detailing an investigation of Aurelija and Caruso's marriage by a special agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). See Tr. 881–85.

In the memorandum, ICE described Aurelija and Kalinauskas's history of joint property ownership as follows: On September 25, 2001, Aurelija purchased a residence on Arapahoe Court in Naperville, Illinois. Tr. 3, 883. She refinanced the property on March 18, 2002, at which time she listed herself and Kalinauskas as primary buyers. Tr. 3, 883. On February 19, 2003—two days before her marriage to Caruso—Aurelija and Kalinauskas again refinanced the property, listing Kalinauskas as the primary buyer and Aurelija as secondary buyer. Tr. 3, 883. Later that year, on December 12, 2003, Aurelija and Kalinauskas purchased a residence on Isle Royal Circle in Plainfield, Illinois, as joint tenants. Tr. 3, 883. Property records listed the two as “husband and wife.” Tr. 3, 883. On February 18, 2004, Aurelija sold the Arapahoe Court property. Tr. 3, 883.

The memorandum also reflected that on December 4, 2004, Caruso entered into a one-year lease at an apartment complex on Bluff Street in Carol Stream, Illinois. Tr. 3, 882–83, 911–15. On the lease, Caruso indicated that he was single; his only prior residence was his mother's house, where he lived from June 1994 to November 2004; and the only other expected tenant would be his son. Tr. 3, 912. The memorandum described a police report indicating that Caruso had been arrested on February 13, 2005,³ for driving under the influence. Tr. 3, 882. At the time of the arrest, he listed the Bluff Street apartment as his current address. Tr. 3, 882.

The ICE memorandum discussed a police report from February 24, 2005, describing Illinois state law enforcement's interactions with Aurelija and Kalinauskas during a criminal investigation at the Isle Royal Circle property. Tr. 2, 881. Officers interviewed and arrested Kalinauskas. Tr. 2, 882. They reported that, during the interview, Kalinauskas identified Aurelija as his girlfriend. Tr. 2, 882. The officers also interviewed Aurelija, who reportedly stated that she and Kalinauskas were “good friends”; that she had lived at that address with Kalinauskas since December 2003; that she was married to Caruso but did not live with him because he and Kalinauskas did not get along; that she had known Kalinauskas for about eight years; that they had been in the United States for four to five years; that she did “not contribute any money to anything regarding the household”; that Kalinauskas paid the mortgage, household bills, and payments on three vehicles at the residence; and that she and Kalinauskas were trying to become U.S. citizens. Tr. 2, 881–82.

The memorandum described Aurelija and Caruso's interview on Caruso's I-130 Petition at the Chicago USCIS office on September 13, 2005. Tr. 882. Both presented Illinois state identification reflecting their residence at the Isle Royal Circle property. Tr. 2, 882. Caruso's identification card had been issued three days earlier, on September 10, 2005. Tr. 2, 882. According to the memorandum, an ICE agent interviewed Caruso separately in the presence of his attorney. Tr. 2, 882. On advice of counsel, Caruso refused to answer any questions, and he and Aurelija left the office. Tr. 882.

The memorandum further stated that ICE agents interviewed Caruso's mother, Mary Ann Caruso, on September 16, 2005. Tr. 3, 882. The agents asked her whether Caruso was married, and she responded that he was not. Tr. 3, 882. When the agents told her that he was in fact married, she responded that she was unaware of that fact. Tr. 3, 882. She said she saw Caruso on a weekly basis; that he lived with his son at the Bluff Street apartment; and that, prior to moving into that apartment, he lived with her. Tr. 3, 882. She recognized a photograph of Aurelija and explained that Aurelija was introduced to her as Caruso's girlfriend about two years earlier. Tr. 882. Mrs. Caruso believed Caruso had stopped dating her “a long time ago.” Tr. 882. Mrs. Caruso also said that Caruso had never lived in Plainfield, Illinois. Tr. 882.

Additionally, the memorandum stated that an ICE agent interviewed Martinez, who stated that her marriage to Kalinauskas was a sham. Tr. 3, 883. She stated that Kalinauskas paid her about $1,700 to go through with the marriage and that they never lived together or consummated the marriage. Tr. 3, 883. She stated that, after she informed Kalinauskas that she would not attend Kalinauskas's interview with USCIS, Kalinauskas visited her at her workplace and told her that he would report their sham marriage to the police if she did not attend. Tr. 3, 883. She stated that, several days later, a woman who she later identified by photograph as Aurelija visited her at her workplace, identified herself as Kalinauskas's girlfriend, and asked Martinez to go to Kalinauskas's interview. Martinez stated that Aurelija began to cry and told Martinez that “she was messing up [Aurelija's] family life.” Tr. 3, 883–84. Aurelija left after Martinez threatened to call the police. Tr.3, 883–84. Finally, Martinez stated that, several days after that encounter, she spoke with Aurelija on the telephone, and Aurelija offered to pay Martinez $5,000 or $10,000 to attend Kalinauskas's interview. Tr. 3, 884. Martinez still refused, and she did not hear from Aurelija again. Tr. 3, 884.

In the NOID, USCIS stated that the information described above “appears to make the paper evidence submitted in regards to [Caruso] and Aurelija's marriage moot and useless in their attempt to reflect the marital relationship.” Tr. 3. The NOID further stated that Aurelija and Brinklys were interviewed in connection with Brinklys's I-130 Petition on July 17, 2008, and that Aurelija was informed of USCIS's suspicion that her marriage to Caruso was fraudulent. Tr. 3. In response, Aurelija denied that allegation and explained that Kalinauskas was actually her step-brother and that her mother had adopted him when he was a child. Tr. 3. USCIS rejected that explanation as inconsistent with Aurelija's reported statement to law enforcement that she had only known Kalinauskas for about eight years. Tr. 3.

USCIS also rejected additional evidence Aurelija submitted concerning her marriage to Caruso and her relationship with Kalinauskas. Tr. 3–5. It found her own statement and a letter from Caruso discussing the circumstances of their relationship to be “seriously lacking in any details,” and it observed that Caruso's letter offered no means of contacting him to verify his statements. Tr. 4. USCIS rejected a letter from people claiming to have been neighbors of Aurelija's family in Lithuania, submitted in support of her assertion that Kalinauskas was her brother, because the letter provided no identifying documents or photographs, failed to state the neighbors' ages, how long they had been neighbors, or any other details concerning their relationship with...