Can I Sue the U.S. Government for Denials of Immigration Benefits?
I’m Ahmad Yakzan from the American Dream®
law office and the leader of the American Dream® team. Today I want to talk to you about something that’s very important which is federal court review of immigration petitions. Now, we’re not talking about removal proceedings here, we’re not talking about habeas proceedings, which they have jurisdiction over originally. What I would like to talk about today is suing the government for a denial of an immigration benefit. Like in the last four years you have heard about courts stopping the trump administration from doing something through executive order. So for example, the ban on Muslims to come in the United States was an actual lawsuit. And that was a lawsuit filed by NGOs against the government. So you can use that same process and sue in district court if you were denied a benefit under the immigration naturalization act.
Now, there are two things that I would like to talk to you about today which is the denial of benefits and the denial of naturalizations. I will discuss other parts of that process which are the petition for review with the circuit court and removal proceedings and other ways you to get the federal courts involved in your case at a later video.
So let’s talk about a denial of an application that you filed before the service. So there are other– there’s several ways to do it. I have seen it done when an H1B gets denied and the decision was just out of the ballpark and it was just not an actual right– the right decision they just made the boo-boo at USCIS and they just didn’t want to fess up to it. So an H1B petitioner for example, who applies for a beneficiary for an H1B and the specialty occupation is questioned by the government. You go through the i-129 process, you premium process it, you go to the administrative appeals office that administrative appeals office actually denies it and then the third step would actually go– be to go to the district court with jurisdiction over your case to sue the government to make him reverse that decision.
What is the Process for Reversing the Government’s Ruling?
Now, what is the process? The process depends on which law that you actually allege was violated one of them is the administrative procedures act which means, okay they didn’t follow the procedures that are in the law and the regulations. They have their own rules and they didn’t submit their own rules when they were talking about my case or deciding my case. This is a great way to actually get someone in supervisory position at USCIS and also the office from OIL, which is a office of immigration litigation from the state department involved and usually these are very good people that would actually talk to you about the case and you will go through the case and maybe find some sort of resolution other than having to go through the suit. A lot of my friends have done them, I’ve done them. This might actually be a great step for you to take especially if you have an employer who really needs you and they need to get you an h1b or something.
So you can also do that with that family-based petitions like an i-130 and an i-485 for example, as a same-sex couple can sue if they deny if someone denies their i-130. They go through the appeals to the board of immigration appeals and they also deny it, then you can go to federal court saying “hey, they messed up we need to reverse their decision” and they use the same administrative procedure act and you know the federal question to go under the jurisdiction of the federal court.
What Rights Do Permanent Residents Have?
Now, I spoke about the bundle of rights before. Now we’re going to talk about the bundle of rights for a permanent resident who is actually going to get naturalized. Permanent residents are qualify for citizenship as the supreme court said they’re only one step away from being a naturalized citizen. That’s why they get one of the highest bundles of rights. So congress passed a law for an naturalization review of the application by the federal government by the federal court. So the federal court can go under statute which is INA 336 and go and review the decision when it comes to naturalization. And I think they made it a special provision of the law because naturalization is very important to someone. So that’s why they want to protect your rights as a permanent resident.
So let’s say you apply for the n-400 you go through the appeal under the n336, they deny the appeal you have a statute in the federal law that says the next step is to go to federal court. You go to sue them under the statute you consume under the administrative procedures act and you can file for injunctions for them not to put you in removal proceedings. You can do everything that you can do under federal law to actually have the judge review it. And as i said, usually you get lawyers because you’re in front of the federal government you get lawyers to actually talk to you about the case and if they messed up usually they call USCIS. If USCIS made a mistake and make them actually change that. And I’ve seen it done when they denied an n400 and then they reversed their decision. Usually it was a criminal conviction. And that lawyer was able to convince USCIS that the conviction was not something that has to go against the moral character of the applicant.
Call The American Dream® Law Office
So we’ve done those cases, we will be more than happy to help you if you receive the denial from USCIS or department of state or any other immigration section of DHS. Call us please at (813) 499-1250 and I’ll be more than happy to talk to you. Thank you.
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