Rivera v. Holder

307 F.R.D. 539, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48370, 2015 WL 1632739
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedApril 13, 2015
DocketCase No. C14-1597RSL
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 307 F.R.D. 539 (Rivera v. Holder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rivera v. Holder, 307 F.R.D. 539, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48370, 2015 WL 1632739 (W.D. Wash. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO CERTIFY CLASS AND PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

ROBERT S. LASNIK, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on plaintiff-petitioner’s motion to certify a class, Dkt. # 2; defendants-respondents’ motion to stay proceedings, Dkt. # 18; and the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, Dkt. # 25; Dkt. # 28-1. Having reviewed the memoranda and exhibits submitted by the parties, the Court finds as follows.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff-petitioner Maria Sandra Rivera (“plaintiff’) is a native of Honduras who entered the United States on May 29, 2014, and was subsequently held in immigration detention under § 236(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). Dkt. # 1 ¶ 44. On June 23, 2014, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) set an initial bond for plaintiff at $7,500. Id. ¶ 48. Plaintiff requested a custody redeter-mination hearing before an Immigration Judge (“IJ”), and requested release on her own recognizance pursuant to the government’s authority under § 1226(a) to grant conditional parole. Id. ¶49. The IJ ruled that he did not have jurisdiction under § 1226(a) to consider plaintiffs request for release on conditional parole. Dkt. # 5 (Arno Deck) ¶ 3. Finding that plaintiff presented “somewhat” of a flight risk, the IJ reduced plaintiffs bond to $3,500. Dkt. #27-5 (IJ Mem.) at 4. Unable to pay this bond, plaintiff remained in detention until October 28, 2014, when the IJ granted plaintiffs application for asylum. Dkt. # 26 (Benki Deck) ¶ 8. At the time of her release after five months of detention, plaintiffs appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) was still pending. Dkt. #36 (PI. Reply MSJ) at 11.

On October 16, 2014, plaintiff filed this class action and moved for class certification, petitioning for the writ of habeas corpus and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Dkt. # 1; Dkt. # 2. Plaintiff claims that Immigration Judges in Seattle and Tacoma Immigration Courts uniformly deny all requests for “conditional parole” under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) on the ground that this statutory provision restricts IJs to permitting aliens’ release on a minimum $1,500 bond. Dkt. # 1 ¶ 65. Plaintiff argues that this policy and practice violates the statute, id. ¶ 66, and requests that the Court declare this policy unlawful and order defendants-respondents (“defendants”) to provide aliens with bond hearings where the IJ will consider requests for conditional parole.

On November 3, 2014, the parties stipulated that the case was appropriate for resolution under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a) because it “rais[ed] a purely legal issue” and no material facts were in dispute. Dkt. # 17 at 2-3. The parties agreed that if the Court decided “the sole legal issue raised by this lawsuit in favor of the Petitioners, class relief would be appropriate ... as the legal issue in this case is determinative of whether ‘final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief is appropriate respecting the class as a whole’ under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2).” Id. at 2.

On December 15, 2014, defendants moved to stay this action on the grounds that the BIA might address the issue presented here in a separate case, In re Vicente-Garcia. Dkt. # 18. In that case, the alien similarly sought release on conditional parole, Dkt. # 18-2 (IJ Mem.); the IJ certified the question of whether an IJ has the authority to grant such requests to the Board, and the BIA subsequently requested supplemental briefing from the parties on the following issues:

(1) Whether the Immigration Judge is authorized to grant conditional parole and can release the alien without any monetary bond on his or her own recognizance during a custody redetermi-nation hearing;
[544]*544(2) Given that the alien in this case has posted the full bond and been released, should the Board adjudicate the merits of the bond appeal or dismiss the appeal as moot? What impact, if any, do the procedures set forth in 8 C.F.R. §§ 1236.1(d)(1), (2), and (3), which relate to the District Director’s authority to ameliorate the terms and conditions of release, have on this question?

Dkt. #38-1 (BIA Letter). Although this briefing has been submitted, Dkt. #38-1; Dkt. # 38-2; the BIA has not yet indicated whether it will decide the first issue or dismiss the appeal. The parties in the instant case have both moved for summary judgment. Dkt. # 25; Dkt. # 28-1.1

II. LEGAL STANDARDS

Summary judgment is appropriate if, viewing the evidence and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, the moving party shows that “there are no genuine issues of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a); Torres v. City of Madera, 648 F.3d 1119, 1123 (9th Cir.2011). The moving party “bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The summary judgment standards do not change when the parties file cross-motions: the court must apply the same standard and rule on each motion independently. We Are Am. v. Maricopa Cnty. Bd. of Sup’rs, 297 F.R.D. 373, 380 (D.Ariz.2013) (citations omitted). The granting of one motion does not necessarily translate into the denial of the other unless the parties rely on the same legal theories and the same set of material facts. Id. (citations omitted).

A district court generally has “broad discretion” to stay proceedings as incident to its power to control its own docket, Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 703, 117 S.Ct. 1636, 137 L.Ed.2d 945 (1997) (citation omitted). A court may, “with propriety, find it is efficient for its own docket and the fairest course for the parties to enter a stay of an action before it, pending resolution of independent proceedings which bear upon the case.” Leyva v. Certified Grocers of California Ltd., 593 F.2d 857, 863-64 (9th Cir.1979). A court considering whether a stay is appropriate must weigh the competing interests that will be affected by the requested stay, including: (1) the possible damage which may result from granting the stay; (2) the hardship or inequity which a party may suffer if the suit is allowed to go forward; and (3) the “orderly course of justice,” measured in terms of the simplifying or complicating of issues, proof, and questions of law which could be expected to result from a stay. CMAX, Inc. v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
307 F.R.D. 539, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48370, 2015 WL 1632739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rivera-v-holder-wawd-2015.