Enrique Gomez Gutierrez v. United States, 20-16644

Plaintiffs Enrique Gomez Gutierrez (alien) and his wife Shannon appealed denial of Enrique’s Form I-601 (waiver of inadmissibility) by USCIS under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(i)(1).
USCIS denied the I-601; that denial automatically triggered denial of Enrique’s I-485 (adjustment of status) and I-212 (permission to reapply) applications.
Plaintiffs filed suit in district court seeking review, arguing USCIS failed to analyze the hardship to Shannon, Enrique’s lawful resident spouse.
Defendants moved to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), citing statutory limits on judicial review of discretionary waiver decisions.
District court granted the motion; plaintiffs appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
Ninth Circuit affirmed, holding courts lack jurisdiction to review the discretionary denial of the § 1182(i) waiver and that neither §1252(a)(2)(D) nor the APA supplied jurisdiction.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the district court had jurisdiction to review USCIS denial of Enrique’s I-601 waiver under § 1182(i)	Plaintiffs argued the denial failed to consider hardship to Shannon and should be reviewable	Defendants argued Congress precluded judicial review of discretionary waiver decisions (§1182(i)(2); §1252(a)(2)(B))	Court held no jurisdiction: waiver denial is committed to Attorney General discretion and statutorily unreviewable
Whether jurisdiction existed under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(D) or the APA	Plaintiffs invoked §1252(a)(2)(D) (review by court of appeals of legal/constitutional questions) and the APA to secure review	Defendants argued §1252(a)(2)(D) does not permit district-court review and APA is barred where statutes preclude review or commit action to agency discretion (5 U.S.C. §701(a))	Court held §1252(a)(2)(D) inapplicable (claims were in district court and raised no legal/constitutional question) and APA jurisdiction is precluded by statute and discretion

Corona-Mendez v. Holder, 593 F.3d 1143 (9th Cir. 2010) (decisions on §1182(i) waivers are not subject to judicial review)
Poursina v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigr. Servs., 936 F.3d 868 (9th Cir. 2019) (denial of discretionary immigration waivers is unreviewable)