Muhia v. Jaddou

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: March 10, 2025
• Docket: 3:24-cv-06048
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT TACOMA 9 JOSEPH NJAU MUHIA, Case No. 3:24-cv-06048-TMC 10 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION TO HOLD 11 v. CASE IN ABEYANCE AND ORDER 12 KIKA SCOTT, et al.,1 Noted for Consideration: 13 Defendants. March 3, 2025 14 15 Plaintiff and Defendants, 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 September 3, 2025. Plaintiff brought this litigation pursuant to the 18 Administrative Procedure Act and Mandamus Act seeking, inter alia, to compel the U.S. 19 Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) adjudicate his Form I-589, Application for 20 Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. Defendants’ response to the Complaint is currently 21 due on March 10, 2025. The parties are currently working towards a resolution to this litigation. 22 23 1 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 25(d), Defendants substitute Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Kika Scott for former Director Ur Jaddou and Secretary Kristi Noem for former Secretary Alejandro 24 Mayorkas. 1 For good cause, the parties request that the Court hold the case in abeyance until September 3, 2 2025. 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 With additional time, this case may be resolved without the need of further judicial 9 intervention. USCIS has scheduled Plaintiff’s asylum interview for May 6, 2025. USCIS agrees 10 to diligently work towards completing the adjudication within 120 days of the interview, absent 11 unforeseen or exceptional circumstances that would require additional time for adjudications. If 12 the adjudication is not completed within that time, USCIS will provide a status report to the 13 Court. Plaintiff will submit all supplemental documents and evidence, if any, to USCIS seven to

14 ten days prior to the interview date. Plaintiff recognizes that failure to submit documents prior to 15 the interview may require the interview to be rescheduled and the adjudication delayed. If 16 needed, Plaintiff will bring an interpreter to the interview, otherwise the interview will need to be 17 rescheduled, and the adjudication delayed. After the interview, USCIS will need time to 18 adjudicate Plaintiff’s asylum application. Once the application is adjudicated, Plaintiff will 19 dismiss the case with each party to bear their own litigation costs and attorneys’ fees. 20 Accordingly, the parties request this abeyance to allow USCIS to conduct Plaintiff’s asylum 21 interview and then process his asylum applications. 22 As additional time is necessary for this to occur, the parties request that the Court hold 23 the case in abeyance until September 3, 2025. The parties will submit a joint status report on or

24 before September 3, 2025. 1 DATED this 3rd day of March, 2025. 2 Respectfully submitted, 3 TEAL LUTHY MILLER CHUNG, MALHAS & MANTEL, PLLC Acting United States Attorney 4 s/ Michelle R. Lambert s/ Dr. Dima N. Malhas 5 MICHELLE R. LAMBERT, NYS #4666657 DR. DIMA N. MALHAS WSBA# 44370 Assistant United States Attorney Chung, Malhas & Mantel, PLLC 6 United States Attorney’s Office 1037 NE 65th Street, Ste. 80171 Western District of Washington Seattle, Washington 98115 7 1201 Pacific Avenue, Suite 700 Phone: 206-264-8999 Tacoma, Washington 98402 Email: dmalhas@cmmlawfirm.com 8 Phone: (206) 553-7970 Attorneys for Plaintiff Fax: (206) 553-4067 9 Email: michelle.lambert@usdoj.gov 10 Attorneys for Defendants 11 I certify that this memorandum contains 412 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 held in abeyance until September 3, 2025. The parties shall submit a joint 3 ||status report on or before September 3, 2025. It is so ORDERED. 4 5 DATED this 10th day of March, 2025. CR Tiffany M7 Cartwright 8 United States District Judge 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 STIPULATED MOTION FOR ABEYANCE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY [Case No. 3:24-cv-06048-TLF] - 4 1201 PACIFIC AVE., STE. 700