Bezunesh Tesfaye Ayahu v. Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of Homeland Security; Joseph B. Edlow, Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; Danielle Lehman, Director of San Francisco Asylum Office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; and Todd Blanche, Acting Attorney General

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: April 10, 2026
• Docket: 2:25-cv-02276
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 The Honorable Jamal N. Whitehead

7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE

9 BEZUNESH TESFAYE AYEHU, CASE NO. 2:25-cv-02276-JNW 10 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION TO STAY CASE 11 AND ORDER v. 12 NOTED FOR CONSIDERATION: MARKWAYNE MULLIN1, Secretary of APRIL 9, 2026 13 Homeland Security; JOSEPH B. EDLOW, Director of United States Citizenship and 14 Immigration Services; DANIELLE LEHMAN, Director of San Francisco Asylum Office of 15 the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; and, Todd Blanche2, Acting Attorney 16 General

17 Defendants.

18 Plaintiff and Defendants, by and through their counsel of record, pursuant to Federal Rule 19 of Civil Procedure 6 and Local Rules 7(d)(1), 10(g) and 16, hereby jointly stipulate and move to 20 stay these proceedings for 90 days. Plaintiff brought this litigation pursuant to the Administrative 21 22

23 1 Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 25(d), Federal Respondents substitute Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for Kristi Noem. 24 2 Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 25(d), Federal Respondents substitute Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for 1 Procedure Act and Mandamus Act seeking, inter alia, to compel U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 2 Services (“USCIS”) to adjudicate her asylum application.

3 Courts have “broad discretion” to stay proceedings. Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 4 (1997). “[T]he power to stay proceedings is incidental to the power inherent in every court to 5 control the disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for 6 counsel, and for litigants.” Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936); see also Fed. R. Civ. 7 P. 1. 8 USCIS sent out interview notices in connection with this case for December 30, 2025 and 9 January 27, 2026, and the parties previously agreed to stipulate to a 90-day stay. At the time, a 10 December 2, 2025 Policy Memorandum, PM-602-0192, available online at 11 https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/policy-alerts/PM-602-0192- 12 PendingApplicationsHighRiskCountries-20251202.pdf, had resulted in a hold on adjudicating

13 asylum applications. However, USCIS issued an alert on March 30, 2026, lifting its hold on 14 “asylum applications from non high-risk countries.” See Update on USCIS’ Strengthened 15 Screening and Vetting, available at https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/update-on-uscis- 16 strengthened-screening-and-vetting (last visited April 1, 2026). As a result of this recent alert, 17 USCIS reasonably anticipates that it will be able to start adjudicating certain I-589 applications 18 within the next few weeks. 19 With additional time, the claims in this litigation may be resolved without the need for 20 further judicial intervention. Once the application at issue is adjudicated, Plaintiff will voluntarily 21 dismiss this case. Accordingly, the parties respectfully request that there is good cause for the 22 instant action be stayed for 90 days. The parties will submit a joint status report on or before the

23 end of this period. 24 1 Dated this 9th day of April, 2026. 2 LAW OFFICE OF DANIEL J. SMITH, PLLC

3 s/ Aaron Vasey s/ Katie D. Fairchild 4 AARON L. VASEY, WSBA No. 58613 KATIE D. FAIRCHILD, WSBA No. 47712 145 N.W. 85th Street, Suite 103 Assistant United States Attorney 5 Seattle, WA 98117 United States Attorney’s Office Phone: 206-438-8720 700 Stewart Street, Suite 5220 6 Email: aaron@danielsmithlawoffice.com Seattle, Washington 98101-1271 Phone: (206) 553-7970 7 Attorney for Plaintiff Fax: 206-553-4067 Email: katie.fairchild@usdoj.gov 8 Attorneys for Defendant 9 I certify that this memorandum contains 314 10 words, in compliance with the Local Civil Rules. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 ORDER 2 The case is stayed for 90 days. The parties shall submit a status update on or before 90 days 3 the date of this Order. It is so ORDERED. 4 Dated this 10th day of April, 2026. 5 Le~— United States District Judge 7 8 9 10 1] 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 STIPULATED MOTION TO STAY CASE AND ORDER UNITED STATES ATTORNEY [2:25-cv-02276-JNW] - 4 700 Stewart Street. Suite 5220