Hayer v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Opinion

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

9 SUKHPREET SINGH HAYER, Case No. 2:24-cv-00971-RSL 10 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION TO HOLD 11 v. CASE IN ABEYANCE AND ORDER

12 UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, 13 Defendant. 14 15 Plaintiff and Defendant, by and through their counsel of record, pursuant to Federal Rule 16 of Civil Procedure 6 and Local Rules 7(d)(1), 10(g) and 16, hereby jointly stipulate and move to 17 stay these proceedings until March 19, 2025. Plaintiff brought this litigation pursuant to the 18 Administrative Procedure Act and Mandamus Act seeking, inter alia, to compel U.S. Citizenship 19 and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to adjudicate his asylum application. Defendants’ response 20 to the Complaint is currently due on October 15, 2024. The parties are currently working 21 towards a resolution to this litigation. For good cause, the parties request that the Court hold the 22 case in abeyance until March 19, 2025. 23 Courts have “broad discretion” to stay proceedings. Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 24 (1997). “[T]he power to stay proceedings is incidental to the power inherent in every court to 1 control the disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for 2 counsel, and for litigants.” Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936); see also Fed. R. Civ. 3 P. 1. 4 With additional time, this case may be resolved without the need of further judicial

5 intervention. USCIS has scheduled Plaintiff’s asylum interview for November 19, 2024. USCIS 6 agrees to diligently work towards completing the adjudication within 120 days of the interview, 7 absent unforeseen or exceptional circumstances that would require additional time for 8 adjudication. If the adjudication is not completed within that time, USCIS will provide a status 9 report to the Court. Plaintiff will submit all supplemental documents and evidence, if any, to 10 USCIS seven to ten days prior to the interview date. Plaintiff recognizes that failure to submit 11 documents prior to the interview may require the interview to be rescheduled and the 12 adjudication delayed. If needed, Plaintiff will bring an interpreter to the interview, otherwise the 13 interview will need to be rescheduled and the adjudication delayed. Once the application is

14 adjudicated, Plaintiff will dismiss the case with each party to bear their own litigation costs and 15 attorneys’ fees. Accordingly, the parties request this abeyance to allow USCIS to conduct 16 Plaintiff’s asylum interview and then process his asylum application. 17 As additional time is necessary for this to occur, the parties request that the Court hold 18 the case in abeyance until March 19, 2025. The parties will submit a status update on or before 19 March 19, 2025. 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 //

24 // 1 DATED this 11th day of October, 2024.

2 Respectfully submitted,

3 TESSA M. GORMAN LAW OFFICE OF WILLIAM FRICK United States Attorney 4 s/ Michelle R. Lambert s/ William Frick 5 MICHELLE R. LAMBERT, NYS #4666657 WILLIAM FRICK, WSBA #26648 Assistant United States Attorney 3040 78th Avenue SE, Box 892 6 United States Attorney’s Office Mercer Island, Washington 98040 Western District of Washington Phone: (206) 286-0167 7 1201 Pacific Avenue, Suite 700 Email: william@fricklawfirm.info Tacoma, Washington 98402 8 Phone: (253) 428-3824 Attorney for Plaintiff Fax: (253) 428-3826 9 Email: michelle.lambert@usdoj.gov

10 Attorneys for Defendant

11 I certify that this memorandum contains 391 words, in compliance with the Local Civil Rules. 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 ORDER 2 The case is STAYED until March 19, 2025. The parties shall submit a status update on 3 or before March 19, 2025. 4

5 Dated this 15th day of October, 2024.

6 7 Robert S. Lasnik United States District Judge 8

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