Arias v. NoemArias v. Noem
OPINION AND ORDER
This matter is before the Court on Defendants’ Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. 45); Plaintiff‘s Response (Doc. 46), which this Court construes to include a Motion for Reconsideration and Motion for Leave to Amend; and Defendants’ Response (Doc. 51). For the reasons stated in this Opinion and Order, the Court GRANTS Defendants’ Motion (Doc. 45); DENIES Plaintiff‘s request for reconsideration, see Doc. 46; and GRANTS IN PART AND DENIES IN PART Plaintiff leave to amend, see Doc. 46.
The Court will start by reviewing the background of the case. It will then address each party‘s motion for reconsideration and Plaintiff‘s motion for leave to amend.
I. BACKGROUND2
Plaintiff Sloane Beatris Arias is a United States citizen married to Otto Sandoval, who is a citizen of El Salvador. In 2017, Ms. Arias and Mr. Sandoval initiated the process for him to become a legal permanent resident of the United States. Because Mr. Sandoval had entered the U.S. without inspection nearly ten years prior, he was required to process1
Approximately one month later, Mr. Sandoval was informed that he had been found permanently inadmissible under
Through counsel, Ms. Arias requested a factual basis for her husband‘s visa denial from the Embassy of San Salvador. After some back-and-forth, the Immigrant Visa Unit sent an email to Mr. Sandoval restating that he was refused a visa under
In December 2022, Plaintiff brought this suit, seeking review of her husband‘s visa denial. The operative complaint is Plaintiff‘s First Amended Complaint (Doc. 15), which brought claims under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA“) and the Fifth Amendment‘s due process clause. Defendants previously moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. See Doc. 19. On July 16, 2023, the Court granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ motion, dismissing Plaintiff‘s APA claim but keeping Plaintiff‘s Fifth Amendment claim. See Doc. 27. Importantly, in keeping the due process claim, the Court followed the Ninth Circuit‘s decision in Muñoz v. United States Department of State, 50 F.4th 906 (9th Cir. 2022), rev‘d and remanded sub nom. Department of State v. Muñoz, 602 U.S. 899 (2024).
Fast forward several months, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari to the Department of State in the Ninth Circuit case, and in January 2024, this Court stayed the instant case pending the Supreme Court‘s likely dispositive decision. See Doc. 42. On June 21, 2024, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Muñoz v. Department of State, 602 U.S. 899 (2024), reversing the Ninth Circuit‘s decision. Subsequently, Defendants filed the instant Motion for Reconsideration, asking the Court to dismiss Plaintiff‘s due process claim in light of the Supreme Court‘s decision in Muñoz. See Doc. 45. Plaintiff filed a Response, asking the court to reconsider its prior dismissal of the APA claim and seeking leave to amend to add claims under the First Amendment and the Accardi doctrine. See Doc. 46. Pursuant to the Court‘s instruction, Defendants
II. MOTIONS FOR RECONSIDERATION
A. Defendants’ Motion for Reconsideration
Defendants move the Court to reconsider its prior refusal to dismiss Plaintiff‘s Fifth Amendment due process claim in light of the Supreme Court‘s recent decision in Muñoz.
In Muñoz, a U.S. citizen brought a Fifth Amendment due process claim after her husband‘s visa application was denied under
The Court finds Muñoz dispositive on Plaintiff‘s due process claim. Here, Plaintiff claimed Defendants violated her Fifth Amendment due process rights when they failed to provide a facially legitimate and bona fide reason as to why her husband‘s visa was denied. Prior to the Supreme Court‘s decision in Muñoz, this Court had refused to dismiss Plaintiff‘s Fifth Amendment claim, citing the Ninth Circuit‘s now-reversed opinion as support and finding that Plaintiff had a Fifth Amendment right in her husband‘s consular process that was plausibly violated by Defendants. See Doc. 27. Under Muñoz, however, Plaintiff‘s Fifth Amendment claim fails as a matter of law, as the Supreme Court has now held that a citizen does not have a Fifth Amendment “fundamental liberty interest in her noncitizen spouse being admitted to the country.” Id. at 910. Accordingly, Defendants’ Motion (Doc. 45) is GRANTED, and Plaintiff‘s Fifth Amendment claim is DISMISSED.
B. Plaintiff‘s Motion for Reconsideration
In her Response, Plaintiff moves the Court to reconsider its prior dismissal of her claim under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA“). In a prior Memorandum Opinion and Order, the Court dismissed the APA claim, reasoning that it was barred by consular nonreviewability because “the Mandel exception“—which provides a narrow exception to consular nonreviewability when a U.S. citizen‘s constitutional rights are implicated—“does not apply to statutory claims.” (Doc. 27, p. 26).
Plaintiff argues that the Supreme Court‘s recent abrogation of the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024), overrides consular nonreviewability. This argument is a nonstarter. The Chevron doctrine required courts to defer to an agency‘s interpretation of the relevant statutory law where the statute was ambiguous or silent on the question at issue. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843 (1984). This Court‘s dismissal of the APA claim here did not turn on deference to any agency interpretation of the law, so Chevron was, and Loper Bright is, inapplicable. Moreover, Muñoz—decided approximately one week before Loper Bright—made clear that consular nonreviewability is alive and well. The APA claim was properly dismissed because it is barred by consular nonreviewability, and Plaintiff‘s Motion for Reconsideration is DENIED.
III. PLAINTIFF‘S MOTION TO AMEND
Under
Plaintiff seeks to file an amended complaint to bring claims under the APA, the First Amendment, and the Accardi doctrine.
A. Proposed Count I: APA Claim
Plaintiff seeks to revive her previously dismissed APA claim as Count I of her proposed amended complaint. For the same reasons the Court denies Plaintiff‘s request for reconsideration of her APA claim, the Court DENIES Plaintiff‘s request to amend her complaint to include this claim.
B. Proposed Count II: First Amendment Claim
It is well established that, generally, courts should not review a consular officer‘s visa denial—a doctrine known as consular nonreviewability. Courts, however, recognize
Plaintiff initially sought to fall within this narrow exception by asserting a Fifth Amendment due process right. However, Muñoz has now made clear that a U.S. citizen does not have a substantive due process right in her noncitizen husband being admitted to the U.S. So, to remain within this exception to consular nonreviewability, Plaintiff seeks leave to add a claim asserting that the denial of her husband‘s visa directly deprived her of her First Amendment right to receive information from her husband face-to-face. See Mandel, 408 U.S. at 762 (“It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas.” (internal quotations and citations omitted)); id. at 765 (noting there “may be particular qualities inherent in sustained, face-to-face debate, discussion and questioning“); see also Murthy v. Missouri, 603 U.S. 43, 75 (2024) (explaining that a cognizable injury to a person‘s right to receive information and ideas under the First Amendment exists “only where the listener has a concrete, specific connection to the speaker” (citing Mandel, 408 U.S. at 762)).
Defendants argue that such amendment would be futile, citing Mandel and Muñoz. According to Defendants, ”Mandel foreclosed a balancing of First Amendment interests
Again, generally a consular officer‘s exclusion decisions are not reviewable, except where a U.S. citizen‘s constitutional rights are implicated. However, even where such rights are implicated, review is precluded where the official provided a facially legitimate and bona fide reason. Importantly, Mandel, Muñoz, and the instant case all fall within different steps of this framework. Muñoz addressed the threshold question: whether a U.S. citizen‘s constitutional rights were implicated. There, the asserted constitutional right was not implicated because U.S. citizens do not have a right, under the Fifth Amendment, to have their noncitizen spouse admitted to the U.S. Mandel addressed the next question: under what circumstances judicial review is available when a constitutional right is implicated and a facially legitimate and bona fide reason is provided.
In Mandel, multiple professors who were United States citizens invited Ernest E. Mandel, a Belgian professor and self-described “revolutionary Marxist,” to speak in the United States. 408 U.S. at 756–57. In short, Mandel‘s visa application was denied and his request for waiver was rejected. Id. at 758–59. The professors brought a claim under the First Amendment, alleging that the statute under which Mandel was excluded was
Contrary to Defendants argument, however, Mandel did not foreclose a First Amendment balancing test altogether. Rather, Mandel held: “[W]hen the Executive exercises [its exclusionary] power negatively on the basis of a facially legitimate and bona fide reason, the courts will neither look behind the exercise of that discretion, nor test it by balancing its justification against the First Amendment interests of those who seek personal communication with the applicant.”3 Mandel, 408 U.S. at 770 (emphasis added). Beyond misquoting the holding in Mandel, Defendants’ assertion that Mandel “foreclosed a substantive First Amendment claim” mischaracterizes the breadth of the Court‘s holding. The Court in Mandel explicitly stated: “What First Amendment or other grounds may be available for attacking exercise of discretion for which no justification whatsoever is advanced is a question we neither address [n]or decide in this case.” Id. at 770. Thus, while Mandel foreclosed balancing First Amendment interests against the Executive‘s exclusion interests in cases where a facially legitimate and bona fide reason was provided, it expressly left open whether First Amendment grounds may exist for attacking the exercise of this discretion absent such a justification.4
In Mandel, the exclusion decision was nonreviewable because there was a facially legitimate and bona fide reason provided; and in Muñoz, the exclusion decision was nonreviewable because no constitutional right was burdened. On the face of the proposed amended complaint here, neither of these bars to judicial review apply: A constitutional right is allegedly burdened and there is an absence of a facially legitimate and bona fide reason.5
In addition to holding there was no substantive due process right, Muñoz held that U.S. citizens have no constitutional right to participate in another person‘s visa application process. 602 U.S. at 919. That is, even where a citizen has a substantive “independent constitutional right” that is affected by another‘s consular process, that does not “give[ ] that citizen a procedural due process right to a ‘facially legitimate and bona fide reason’ for why someone else‘s visa was denied.” Id. at 919 (emphasis added). Importantly, the Supreme Court distinguished between the claims made in Muñoz and Mandel, explaining that the “‘facially legitimate and bona fide reason’ in Mandel was the justification for
Indeed, a procedural due process claim was not even before the Court [in Mandel]. The professors argued that the denial of Mandel‘s visa directly deprived them of their First Amendment rights, not that their First Amendment rights entitled them to procedural protections in Mandel‘s visa application process. To make an argument logically analogous to that of the professors [in Mandel], Muñoz would have to claim that the denial of [her husband‘s] visa violated her substantive due process right to bring her noncitizen spouse to the United States—thereby triggering the State Department‘s obligation to demonstrate why denying him the visa is the least restrictive means of serving the Government‘s interest in national security. But, as we have explained, Muñoz has disavowed that argument, which cannot succeed in any event because the asserted right is not a longstanding and “deeply rooted” tradition in this country.
Muñoz, 602 U.S. at 918–19 (citations omitted) (emphasis added).6
Unlike in Muñoz, Plaintiff here does not assert a procedural right to receive a facially legitimate and bona fide reason for the denial of her husband‘s visa.7 Rather, Plaintiff asserts that the “denial of [her husband‘s] visa directly deprive[s] [her] of [her] First Amendment rights, not that [her] First Amendment rights entitle[ her] to procedural protections in [her husband‘s] visa application process.” Id. at 918. The Supreme Court concluded its opinion in Muñoz by stating, “Whatever else it may stand for, Mandel does not hold that a citizen‘s independent constitutional right (say, a free speech claim) gives that citizen a procedural due process right to a ‘facially legitimate and bona fide reason’
While judicial review of an exclusion decision is an undesirable result, Defendants have not briefed whether, in the absence of a facially legitimate and bona fide reason, a First Amendment claim is viable.8 Rather, they rely entirely on their argument that Mandel foreclosed First Amendment review—overlooking the distinction that a facially legitimate and bona fide reason was provided in Mandel and intentionally avoiding the Supreme Court‘s explicit statement that Mandel did not address what First Amendment grounds might exist where a facially legitimate and bona fide reason was not provided.
The Court is unpersuaded that Mandel and Muñoz foreclose judicial review of Plaintiff‘s First Amendment claim where no facially legitimate or bona fide reason was provided. And on the current briefing, the Court will defer any decision as to whether Defendants’ exclusion of Plaintiff‘s husband in fact implicates her First Amendment right to receive information. In the spirit of freely granting leave to amend, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff‘s Motion for Leave to Amend to add a First Amendment claim. See Doc. 46, pp. 5–
C. Proposed Count III: Accardi Claim
Plaintiff proposes adding a claim under the Accardi doctrine, alleging that Defendants’ failure to follow their own rules and regulations deprived Plaintiff of her ability to seek reconsideration of the inadmissibility decision. The Eighth Circuit has “recognize[d] that the Accardi doctrine bars administrative agencies from taking action inconsistent with their internal regulations when it would affect individual rights.” United States v. Lee, 274 F.3d 485, 492 (8th Cir. 2001) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). “The crucial question is whether the alleged conduct of [the agency] deprived [plaintiff] of any [ ] right[ ] guaranteed [her] by the statute or by the regulations issued pursuant thereto.” United States ex rel. Accardi v. Shaughnessy, 347 U.S. 260, 265 (1954).
The alleged rule or regulation here is
The Court is sympathetic that without a factual predicate a person‘s ability to contest the conclusory finding of inadmissibility is greatly frustrated. However, the Court cannot identify any action that the agency took that was inconsistent with its own regulations that deprived Plaintiff of a right guaranteed her by the statute or the regulations. In fact, the statute and regulations guarantee her no right. A person found to be inadmissible under
In light of Muñoz‘s holding that a citizen spouse does not have a right to procedural due process in her noncitizen spouse‘s consular process, the Court is hard pressed to find that Plaintiff is entitled to certain administrative processes in her husband‘s visa denial, particularly when there is no allegation that Defendants acted inconsistent with their own rules or regulations. The Court will, therefore, DENY Plaintiff‘s request to add a claim under the Accardi doctrine.
IV. CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants’ Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. 45) is GRANTED, and Plaintiff‘s Fifth Amendment claim is DISMISSED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff‘s Motion for Reconsideration of the Court‘s prior dismissal of the APA claim, see Doc. 46, is DENIED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiff‘s Motion for Leave to File an Amended Complaint, see Doc. 46, is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. The Court declines Plaintiff‘s request to resurrect her APA claim or add an Accardi claim. The Court will, however, permit Plaintiff to amend her complaint to include a First Amendment claim. Plaintiff must file her amended complaint, subject to the limits stated herein, within seven (7) days from the issuance of this Order. To the extent Defendants wish to move to dismiss the amended complaint, they must do so within thirty (30) days of its filing.
The Court will enter a new scheduling order separately.
IT IS SO ORDERED on this 31st day of March, 2025.
TIMOTHY L. BROOKS
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE