Haser v. Brown
| Decision Date | 25 February 2020 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 18-1383 |
| Parties | MAHNAZ HASER, Plaintiff, v. KRISTAL BROWN and MICHAEL HORVATH, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania |
Re: ECF No. 12
Plaintiff Mahnaz Isabella Haser ("Haser"), a native of Iran and citizen of Sweden, filed this action against Defendants Kristal Brown and Michael Horvath, (collectively, "USCIS"), pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1421(c) seeking de novo review of the denial of her naturalization application.
Presently before the Court is USCIS's Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint or, in the Alternative, Motion for Summary Judgment. ECF No. 12. The parties have filed several exhibits in support and in opposition to the pending motion, and Haser has filed a series of statements supporting her claim that she was wrongfully denied naturalization. ECF Nos. 14, 17, 18, 24-28. For the reasons that follow, Haser is ineligible for naturalization as a matter of law. Accordingly, the Motion for Summary Judgment will be granted.
The following facts, taken from the pleadings and the exhibits filed by the parties, are undisputed. In the Complaint, Haser acknowledges that she is a citizen of Iran and Sweden. ECF No. 3 at 4. On February 28, 2001, Haser completed a Form I-539, "Application for Asylum," using the name Mahnaz Isabella Khatibi. ECF No. 14-1. The form reflects that it was prepared by Khosrow Jahaban, based on information provided to him by Haser. Mr. Jahaban attests that he read the completed application to Haser for her verification, and that Haser signed the application attesting to the veracity of the information set forth therein. Id.
Attached to the Application for Asylum is a statement, in which Haser represents that she does not hold citizenship in any country other than Iran. Haser further claims that her father and grandfather were members of the intelligence service of the Shah of Iran, and that she was married to an air force fighter pilot who went missing in 1994. Haser states that after her husband's disappearance, members of the Revolutionary Guard imprisoned her for five years on suspicion of aiding his escape from Iran. During this period, Haser represents that prison guards repeatedly raped and tortured her. Haser states that she left Iran with her daughter on November 4, 2000, made her way to Turkey and then, with a forged passport, traveled to Germany, France, Mexico, and arrived in the United States on December 5, 2000, traveling first to San Diego and eventually settling in Los Angeles. Id. Haser claimed that she feared future persecution and death if returned to Iran because of her political opinion and religion. ECF No. 14-1.
In September 2001, USCIS interviewed Haser in connection with her Application for Asylum and provided her an opportunity to correct facts set forth in her application. ECF No. 14-1 at 9. Haser made four corrections to her application. First, she clarified that she was not in removal, deportation or exclusion proceedings; second, she stated that she had not entered the United States before December 5, 2000, and, at that time, she entered without inspection; third, she entered with her daughter, without inspection; and fourth, her son "Olaf Khatabi" remained in Iran. With these revisions, Haser declared that she understood that any false statements of material fact were punishable under applicable perjury laws, and that a frivolous application for asylumwould render her permanently ineligible for any benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act. ECF 14-3. Haser's application for asylum from Iran was granted on September 21, 2001. ECF No. 14-4.
In September 2002, Haser submitted Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Resident or Adjust Status, using the name Mahnaz Isabella Khatibi. ECF No. 14-5. Haser stated she had not "by fraud or willful misrepresentation of a material fact, ever sought to procure or procured, a visa or other documentation, entry into the U.S. or any immigration benefit." Id. at 4. Haser's application was granted on January 27, 2006, and Haser became a legal permanent resident.
Three years later, USCIS received an anonymous letter conveying that Haser's asylum application was fraudulent, that she was a citizen of Sweden, and that she was receiving monthly financial benefits from the Swedish government. ECF No. 14-6. The letter attached a copy of a passport issued to Isabella Mahnaz Gustafsson, born May 5, 1965, with a photo of Haser, and listing Tehran as Ms. Gustafsson's place of birth. The passport, issued on June 25, 1998, contained stamps revealing that Ms. Gustafsson had traveled to the United States five times during 1999.
On September 8, 2010, Haser submitted an Application for Naturalization, using the name Mahnaz Isabella Haser. ECF No. 14-9. Haser identified her son as "Olaf Gustafsson," and revealed that he was born in Sweden and was a resident of Sweden. ECF No. 14-9 at 7. USCIS interviewed Haser in connection with her application on March 8, 2011. During the interview, Haser made 11 corrections to her application, disclosed two prior marriages, and listed her prior spouse as "George Abici" with a marriage lasting one year, from 1989 to 1990. Id. at 6. Haser again attested that the information in the application was truthful and that she had never provided false information to obtain an immigration benefit.
The record reflects that Haser appeared for a second interview at the USCIS Los Angeles Field Office on June 21, 2011, and again affirmed that she has only been a citizen of Iran and no other country, and that she had never been issued a passport from any country. ECF No. 14-10 at 5. Haser again stated that she was imprisoned in Iran from 1994 to 1999, and that she had entered the United States just once before applying for asylum in 2001. Haser represented that she had been married to Georg Gustafsson, but stated the marriage took place in Iran in 1991. Id.
USCIS contacted officials of the Embassy of Sweden to determine whether it had issued a passport to Isabella Mahnaz Gustofsson as a citizen of Sweden. The Consul General confirmed that a Swedish passport was validly issued on June 25, 1998, to Isabella Mahnaz Gustafsson, listing Tehran as her place of birth and May 5, 1965 as her birthday. ECF No. 14-7.
After her June 2011 interview, Haser contacted USCIS and represented that she had moved to Pennsylvania. USCIS transferred her case to the Pittsburgh Field Office. The record reflects that Haser, accompanied by counsel, appeared to present testimony relative to her application. ECF No. 14-10 at 5. Under oath, Haser revealed that she was a citizen of Iran and held an Iranian passport but moved to Sweden in 1986, where she resided until the she entered the United States in 2000. Haser stated that she holds a Swedish passport and that she has been married three times. During her interview, Haser alleged that her parents forced her to marry her first husband at the age of nine, and that the marriage was never recorded. USCIS noted the discrepancy in her asylum application, reflecting that Haser's first marriage to Safari Abbas occurred when she was 23 and he was 38. Haser stated that both of her children were born in Sweden and she presented a Swedish population register, revealing that she was born in Iran, and immigrated to Sweden in 1987. The register reflects her marital status as divorced in 1999. Id.
When questioned about discrepancies in her asylum application, Haser said that information may have been falsified, and alleged that the USCIS Officer who interviewed her in 2001 "may have" assisted and facilitated approval of her application. Id. Haser was presented with a copy of her Swedish passport showing multiple trips to the United States before 2000, and she conceded that the passport was hers and that she "may have" traveled to the United States multiple times before her December 5, 2000 entry. Id.
USCIS determined that Haser's asylum was based on false information; specifically, that during the time she alleged she was imprisoned and persecuted in Iran, she was "firmly resettled in Sweden." Id. USCIS therefore concluded Haser was ineligible for naturalization under Section 318 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and denied her application for naturalization. Id.
Haser did not appeal the denial. Instead, Haser filed a new Application for Naturalization, claiming that she was the victim of unscrupulous conduct perpetrated by the USCIS official who conducted her 2001 interview. ECF No. 14-11 at 23. Haser stated that the official suggested he would approve her application, "as long as [she] promised to out with him on a date of some sort." Id. She further alleged that her asylum application was prepared by "an unscrupulous notario" who "failed to state" that she had resided in Sweden. Id.
On September 6, 2017, the USCIS denied Haser's second application based on Haser's concession that she completed and signed both the asylum application and the I-495 Application for Naturalization "in [her] own hand." ECF No. 14-12 at 3. USCIS also cited Haser's failure to present evidence to support her allegations that she was a victim of fraud and concluded that Haser deliberately provided false information in her asylum application to gain immigration benefits. Under these circumstances, Haser failed to show that she was lawfully admitted for permanent residence, and USCIS determined that Haser was ineligible for naturalization.
On September 26, 2017, Haser submitted a request for hearing stating that she was pursuing naturalization by virtue of her most recent marriage to a United States citizen. ECF No. 14-13 at 3. In addition, she stated she was "a victim of immigration translators, an attorney and a U.S. immigration official." Id. Haser represented that she did not prepare her asylum application "in her own hand as her English at the...
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