NWIRP is dedicated to the systemic change of immigration laws, and consequently dedicates significant resources to impact litigation. During the last decade we have positively affected many important cases with implications for national immigration laws.
To respond to the growth of immigration appeals at the Federal and Ninth District Courts, we increased our focus in this area by establishing a new legal unit in 2005. At any one time, the Impact Litigation Unit has several cases pending before the federal courts. NWIRP was invited by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to speak at a roundtable discussion on how to deal with the Circuit's large volume of immigration cases.
District Court Grants Certification for District Wide Class regarding Naturalization Delays; Settlement Approved by District Court.
NWIRP, the ACLU of Washington State, and pro bono co-counsel from the law firms of Stoel Rives and Ropes and Gray filed a class action in the Western District of Washington State challenging extended delays by USCIS in completing the adjudication of hundreds of applicants who have applied for naturalization (citizenship). The case is Roshandel, et al. v. Chertoff, et al., C07-1739-MJP (2007). On April 25, 2008, Judge Pechman granted our motion for class certification in the naturalization delay cases, the first such motion granted in the Country on this issue. The Judge also issued an order denying the government’s motion to dismiss or remand the cases to USCIS. The class covers over 450 individuals in Western Washington who had their interviews before USCIS, but the Service failed to complete the adjudication of their application within 120 days of the interview due to name checks. The government subsequently agreed to a settlement that was approved by the District Court on August 25, 2008. Through this litigation 79 class members have already been sworn in as U.S. citizens. The settlement provides for the final resolution (including the oath ceremony for eligible applicants) of approximately 283 of the remaining applications by September 19 and final resolution (including the oath ceremony for eligible applicants) of ALL remaining class members by October 17. Thus, all class members who demonstrated eligibility for naturalization will have the opportunity to be sworn in as U.S. citizens in time to register to vote for the upcoming elections in November of 2008. Click here to read the agreement.
NWIRP is Lead Counsel in Ninth Circuit Wide Class Action Challenging USCIS Policy
Another example of NWIRP’s impact litigation is its ongoing litigation in Duran-Gonzalez v. Dept. of Homeland Security, a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security's willful refusal to follow the Ninth Circuit's binding decision in Perez-Gonzalez v. Ashcroft, 379 F.3d 783 (9th Cir. 2004) (a case previously litigated by NWIRP).
Along with the American Immigration Legal Foundation and Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, NWIRP filed a class action seeking declaratory relief and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief. Judge Pechman, from the District Court of Western Washington, granted the motion for circuit-wide class certification, and granted the motions for preliminary injunctive relief. The government filed an appeal of the preliminary injunction, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order reversing the preliminary injunction in the availability Gonzales v. Department of Homeland Sec., 508 F.3d 1227 (9th Cir. 2007). A petition for rehearing en banc was submitted on February 26, 2008, and is currently pending. Developments from the case will be posted here.
Click here for a list of the published decisions in which NWIRP has prevailed.
