On June 26, 2020, CLCMA filed a Complaint seeking mandamus relief and alleging violations of the APA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. This lawsuit challenges the government’s arbitrary and lengthy delay of our client’s immigrant visa petition, which he filed on behalf of his wife of six years. His wife is currently living abroad waiting to be able to immigrate to the United States, with the couple’s two young U.S. citizen children. Her immigrant process has been stalled by the government’s failure to act on this initial step. Our client and his family continue to suffer harm while USCIS refuses to make a decision on this Petition, which has been pending a full year past the normal processing time.
For years, our U.S. citizen client has been subjected to discriminatory actions by the U.S. government that prevent him from freely traveling abroad to see his family. CLCMA previously represented him in successfully being removed from the No Fly list. Now, USCIS is withholding the chance for his wife to relocate to the U.S. Our lawsuit points out the government’s failure and refusal to perform its duty to timely adjudicate this petition is a clear violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. CLCMA is committed to pursuing our client’s statutory rights, as well as the constitutional rights of all citizens and their families, to ensure that legal wrongs like this do not go unchallenged.
“We are glad to help our client move forward in hopefully reuniting his family, since there is no legitimate reason under the law to prevent this U.S. citizen from being able to bring his lawful wife and U.S. citizen children here to be with him,” said Christina Jump, CLCMA’s Civil Litigation Department Head. “We are sorry for him and his family that this even became necessary, but are honored to help him now that it has.”
“The U.S. immigration statute is intended to reunite families. It is tragic that this young family has been separated for years by USCIS’s unnecessarily delaying its approval of this marriage-based petition.” said Kathryn Brady, CLCMA’s Immigration Department Head. “CLCMA is committed to advocating for our client and his family to get one step closer to building their life together in the U.S.”
