Yu v. Brown
| Decision Date | 26 April 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. Civ.97-1491 MV/WWD.,Civ.97-1491 MV/WWD. |
| Citation | 92 F.Supp.2d 1236 |
| Parties | Yue YU (a/k/a/ Yu Yue), et al., Plaintiffs, v. Douglas BROWN, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Mexico |
Schoenburg & Enfield, Santa Fe, NM, John W. Lawit, Albuquerque, NM, for Yue Yu, plaintiff.
Michael H. Moses, Joan M. Hart, U.S. Atty's Office District of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, Pauline Terrelonge, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, Hugh G. Mullane, Vinson, Houston, for Douglas Brown, Officer in Charge, Albuquerque Suboffice, Immigration & Naturalization Service, defendant.
THIS MATTER comes before the Court on Plaintiffs' Yue Yu, et. al.'s Motion for Summary Judgment filed September 15, 1999 [Doc. No. 56] and Defendants' Douglas Brown, et. al.'s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment filed September 15, 1999 [Doc. No. 58].
Plaintiffs ask the Court to find as a matter of law that the November 26, 1997 amendment (the "Amendment") to § 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") does not apply to applications for adjustment of immigration status filed under that section prior the enactment of the Amendment. Defendants conversely ask the Court to find as a matter of law that the Amendment does apply to applications filed prior to its enactment.
The Court, having considered the parties' pleadings, the applicable law, and being otherwise fully informed, finds that Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment is well taken and will be GRANTED, and that Defendants' Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment is not well taken and will be DENIED.
The Court finds the following facts to be undisputed: Each Plaintiff is unmarried, under 21 years old and a non-permanent resident of the United States. Each Plaintiff has been declared dependant upon a juvenile court located in the United States in accordance with state law governing such declarations of dependancy while in the United States and under the jurisdiction of the court that made the declaration. Each Plaintiff has been deemed eligible by the juvenile court for long-term foster care and continues to be eligible for such. The juvenile court has declared for each Plaintiff that it would not be in the Plaintiff's best interest to be returned to the country of nationality or the last habitual residence of the Plaintiff or the Plaintiff's parents. Prior to November 26, 1997, each Plaintiff filed with the INS's Albuquerque suboffice an INS Form I-360 (Petition for Amerasian, Widow or Special Immigrant) (hereinafter "SIJ petition"), with accompanying documentation, seeking classification as a "special immigrant juvenile" pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J) and 8 C.F.R. § 204.11. At the same time, each Plaintiff filed with the Albuquerque suboffice an INS Form I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status), with accompanying documentation, seeking an adjustment of his or her immigration status to that of a lawful permanent resident, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1244 and 8 C.F.R. § 245.2. As of this date, none of the Plaintiffs' SIJ petitions or adjustment applications have been adjudicated.
On November 20, 1997, Plaintiff Yue Yu filed a Complaint For Declaratory and Injunctive Relief. In the Complaint, Yu sought mandamus relief on her own behalf and on behalf of a class of persons similarly situated — namely, all persons who have filed an SIJ petition and adjustment application with the INS's Albuquerque Suboffice, whose petition and/or application has been pending for more than one year without adjudication. Yu asked the Court to certify a Plaintiff class, compel Defendants to adjudicate the applications, and compel Defendants to allocate sufficient resources to facilitate the adjudication of the applications. On July 20, 1998, Plaintiffs Chia Lun Mao and Ju Lin Tien were granted intervention. The Court denied class certification on February 11, 1999. On June 4, 1999, the parties filed a Stipulated Partial Settlement Agreement. Yu's claim was essentially resolved. Mao's and Tien's claims were amended by section I(B)(2) of the Agreement, which states in relevant part:
The parties agree and hereby stipulate that the final resolution of this case depends on the Court's determination of the single legal issue, whether the November 26, 1997 amendment to INA § 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J)) ("the Amendment") applies to applications for adjustment of status filed under that section prior to the enactment of the Amendment.
The Defendants agree that if the final, non-appealable decision on the issue of applicability of the Amendment is in favor of Plaintiffs and any Plaintiff-Interveners, the INS will adjudicate within 60 days of such decision the applications of Plaintiffs and any Plaintiff-Interveners under the prior law, provided that the applications are still ripe for adjudication, and the applicants are still prima facie eligible for the subject immigration benefit and have not attained his or her twenty-first birthday.
Summary judgment is an integral part of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which are intended to "`secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of every action.'" Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 327, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 1). Under Rule 56(c), summary judgment is appropriate when the Court, viewing the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, determines that "there is no genuine dispute over a material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Thrasher v. B & B Chemical Co., 2 F.3d 995, 996 (10th Cir.1993). The movant bears the initial burden of showing "there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Bacchus Indus., Inc. v. Arvin Indus., Inc., 939 F.2d 887, 891 (10th Cir. 1991). Once the movant meets this burden, Rule 56(e) "requires the nonmoving party to go beyond the pleadings and by her own affidavits, or by the `depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file,' designate specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548. "Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party, there is no `genuine issue for trial.'" Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).
Although the material submitted by the parties in support of and in opposition to the motion must be construed liberally in favor of the party opposing the motion, Harsha v. United States, 590 F.2d 884, 887 (10th Cir.1979), the burden on the moving party may be discharged by demonstrating to the district court that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548. In such a situation, the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, "because the nonmoving party has failed to make a sufficient showing on an essential element of her case with respect to which she has the burden of proof." Id. at 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548.
The sole issue presented before the Court on the motions for summary judgment is whether the November 26, 1997 Amendment to § 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J), applies to applications for adjustment of immigration status filed under that section prior to the enactment of the Amendment. Simply put, the Court must determine whether the Amendment applies to Plaintiffs' applications pending as of the date of enactment. Plaintiffs argue that (1) the Court should not give deference to an INS determination that the Amendment applies to pending applications; (2) Congress did not intend to apply the Amendment to pending applications; (3) an impermissible retroactive effect would result if the Amendment was applied to applications filed prior to the date of enactment; and (4) the applications should be processed under the SIJ provisions that existed prior to the Amendment. Defendants dispute Plaintiffs' contentions and argue that the Court should reach the opposite conclusions.
In order to resolve these issues, it is necessary to review the relevant INA provisions and the Amendment.
Section 153 of the Immigration Act of 1990, P.L. 101-649, Title I, 104 Stat. 5005-06, added subparagraph (J) to section 101(a)(27) of the INA creating a classification known as "Special Immigrant Juvenile" ("SIJ"). Prior to November 26, 1997, a Special Immigrant Juvenile was defined as:
an immigrant (i) who has been declared dependant on a juvenile court located in the United States or whom such a court has legally committed to, or placed under the custody of, an agency or department of a State and who has been deemed eligible by that court for long-term foster case, and (ii) for whom it has been determined in administrative or judicial proceedings that it would not be in the alien's best interest to be returned to the alien's or parent's previous country of nationality or country of last habitual residence.
On November 26, 1997, President Clinton signed the fiscal year 1998 appropriations bill for the Department of Commerce, Justice and State (Pub.L. No. 105-119, 111 Stat. 2440). Tucked into this omnibus legislation, section 113 of the bill amended INA § 101(a)(27)(J) so that Special Immigrant Juvenile would be defined as follows:
(J) an immigrant who is present in the United States
(i) who has been declared dependant on a juvenile court located in the United States or whom such a court has legally committed to, or placed under the custody of, an agency or department of a State and who...
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