Alemu v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: March 26, 2024
• Docket: 2:24-cv-00091
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 8 TENAYE ALEMU, No. 2:24-cv-00091-JHC 9

10 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION TO HOLD CASE IN ABEYANCE AND ORDER 11 v. 12 UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, et al., 13 Defendants. 14

15 Plaintiff brought this litigation pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act and 16 Mandamus Act seeking, inter alia, to compel U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 17 (“USCIS”) to adjudicate her Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. 18 Defendants’ response to the Complaint is currently due on April 1, 2024. The parties are currently 19 working towards a resolution to this litigation. For good cause, the parties request that the Court 20 hold the case in abeyance until Thursday, September 19, 2024. 21 Courts have “broad discretion” to stay proceedings. Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 22 (1997). “[T]he power to stay proceedings is incidental to the power inherent in every court to 23 control the disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for 24 counsel, and for litigants.” Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936); see also Fed. R. Civ. 25 P. 1. 26 With additional time, this case may be resolved without the need of further judicial 1 intervention. USCIS has scheduled Plaintiff Tenaye Alemu’s asylum interview for May 22, 2024. 2 USCIS agrees to work diligently towards completing the adjudication within 120 days of the 3 interview, absent unforeseen or exceptional circumstances that would require additional time for 4 adjudication. If the adjudication is not completed within that time, USCIS will provide a status 5 report to the Court. 6 Plaintiff will submit all supplemental documents and evidence, if any, to USCIS seven to 7 ten days prior to the interview date. Plaintiff recognizes that failure to submit documents prior to 8 the interview may require the interview to be rescheduled and the adjudication delayed. If needed, 9 Plaintiff will bring an interpreter to the interview; otherwise, the interview will need to be 10 rescheduled and the adjudication delayed. After the interview, USCIS will need time to adjudicate 11 Plaintiff’s asylum application. Once the application is adjudicated, Plaintiff will dismiss the case 12 with each party to bear their own litigation costs and attorneys’ fees. Accordingly, the parties 13 request this abeyance to allow USCIS to conduct Plaintiff’s asylum interview and then process her 14 asylum application. 15 As additional time is necessary for this to occur, the parties request that the Court hold the 16 case in abeyance until September 19, 2024. The parties will submit a joint status report on or before 17 September 19, 2024, if the case is still unresolved.

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Dated: March 25, 2024 Respectfully submitted, 1 2 BRIAN M. BOYNTON /s/ Nicholas Power Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General NICHOLAS POWER 3 Civil Division The Law Office of Nicholas Power, PLLC

540 Guard St. Ste. 150 4 W DiI rL ecL toIA r,M D iC st. r iP cE t A CoC uH rtE SY e ction Friday Harbor, WA 98250 5 Office of Immigration Litigation 360.298.0464 nickedpower@gmail.com 6 WILLIAM C. SILVIS Assistant Director /s/ James O. Hacking, III 7 JAMES O. HACKING, III CARA E. ALSTERBERG Hacking Immigration Law, LLC 8 Senior Litigation Counsel 10121 Manchester Road, Suite A

St. Louis, MO 63122 9 /s/ Joshua C. McCroskey JOSHUA C. MCCROSKEY, FL # 1033212 (O) 314.961.8200 10 Trial Attorney (F) 314.961.8201 U.S. Department of Justice (E) jim@hackingimmigrationlaw.com 11 Office of Immigration Litigation District Court Section Attorneys for Plaintiffs 12 P.O. Box 868, Ben Franklin Station Washington, DC 20044 13 Phone: (202) 305-1540 Fax: (202) 305-7000 14 joshua.c.mccroskey@usdoj.gov

15 Attorneys for Defendants

16 I certify that this memorandum contains 383 words, in compliance with the Local 17 Civil Rules.

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 1 ORDER 2 The case is held in abeyance until September 19, 2024. The parties shall submit a joint 3 || status report on or before September 19, 2024, if the case is still unresolved. It is so ORDERED. 4 5 || DATED this 26th day of March, 2024. 6 7

JOHN H. CHUN 9 United States District Judge 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

STIPULATED MOTION FOR ABEYANCE -4- (2:24-ev-00091-JHC)