United States v. Wasylyk

162 F. Supp. 2d 86, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9983, 2001 WL 958762
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. New York
DecidedJuly 13, 2001
Docket1:99-cv-01991
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 162 F. Supp. 2d 86 (United States v. Wasylyk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Wasylyk, 162 F. Supp. 2d 86, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9983, 2001 WL 958762 (N.D.N.Y. 2001).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM-DECISION AND ORDER

MORDUE, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

The United States moves for summary judgment, Fed.R.Civ.P. 56, on Count I of its complaint in this action to revoke defendant’s United States citizenship on the ground that it is based on an invalid visa.

BACKGROUND

On November 18, 1999, the United States filed a four-count complaint to revoke defendant’s citizenship based on the assertion that it was illegally procured and is therefore revocable under 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a) 1 , because it was not procured *88 while defendant was “lawfully admitted for permanent residence” to the United States, as required by 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a). 2 The United States moves for summary judgment on Count I, which charges that defendant’s admission to the United States was not lawful because it was based on a visa for which he was ineligible under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 (“DPA”) 3 due to his service during World War II as a guard at Nazi-operated forced-labor camps at Trawniki and Budzyn, which service constituted assistance to the enemy in the persecution of civil populations.

In order to be naturalized as a United States citizen, one must be lawfully admitted for permanent residence, be of good moral character, be attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and be well disposed towards the good order and happiness of the United States. 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a) 4 ; see United States v. Sokolov, 814 F.2d 864, 869 (2d Cir.1987). During the years after the Second World War, the DPA, which permitted refugees and displaced persons to emigrate to the United States without regard to previous immigration quotas, provided one avenue of lawful admission for permanent residence. Section 2(b) of the DPA incorporated by reference the definition of “refugees or displaced persons” in the Constitution of the International Refugees Organization (“IRO”) 5 , which provided *89 that persons who could be shown “to have assisted the enemy in persecuting civil populations” were ineligible for refugee or displaced person status. IRO CONST., Annex I, Part II, 62 Stat. at 3051-52; see Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S. 490, 495 nn. 3, 4, 101 S.Ct. 737, 66 L.Ed.2d 686 (1981). Entry into the United States pursuant to a DPA visa by a person who was ineligible for refugee or displaced person status did not constitute lawful admission for permanent residence; thus, he or she could not legally procure citizenship under 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a). “It would defeat the paramount purpose of the DPA — to assist those whose lives had been disrupted by persecution — to extend the statute’s benefits to the persecutors themselves.” United States v. Schmidt, 923 F.2d 1253, 1259 (7th Cir.1991).

The Supreme Court has held that the Government “carries a heavy burden of proof in a proceeding to divest a naturalized citizen of his citizenship.” Costello v. United States, 365 U.S. 265, 269, 81 S.Ct. 534, 5 L.Ed.2d 551 (1961). Evidence justifying revocation of citizenship must be “ ‘clear, unequivocal, and convincing’ ” and not leave “the issue in doubt.” Schneiderman v. United States, 320 U.S. 118, 125, 63 S.Ct. 1333, 87 L.Ed. 1796 (1943). “[T]here must[, however,] be strict compliance with all the congressionally imposed prerequisites to the acquisition of citizenship. Failure to comply with any of these conditions renders the certificate of citizenship ‘illegally procured,’ and naturalization that is unlawfully procured can be set aside.” Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 506, 101 S.Ct. 737. As the Supreme Court observed, “[n]o alien has the slightest right to naturalization unless all statutory requirements are complied with; and every certificate of citizenship must be treated as granted upon condition that the government may challenge it ... and demand its cancellation unless issued in accordance with such requirements.” United States v. Ginsberg, 243 U.S. 472, 475, 37 S.Ct. 422, 61 L.Ed. 853 (1917).

It is familiar law that a party moving for summary judgment bears the initial burden of demonstrating that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); see Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). If the Court, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant, determines that the movant has satisfied its burden, the burden then shifts to the nonmovant to adduce evidence establishing the existence of a disputed issue of material fact requiring a trial. See id. If the nonmovant fails to carry this burden, summary judgment is appropriate. See id. Even in denaturalization cases, the facts of a case may be such that revocation of citizenship at the summary judgment stage is appropriate. See, e.g., United States v. Dailide, 227 F.3d 385, 389 (6th Cir.2000).

THE MOTION

The United States, in moving for summary judgment on Count I, argues that defendant’s admitted service as an armed guard at the Trawniki and Budzyn forced-labor camps constitutes assistance in the persecution of civilians as a matter of law and that therefore defendant was ineligible for a visa under the DPA.

Affidavit of Dr. Peter R. Black

Dr. Peter R. Black, Senior Historian and Director of the Division of the Senior Historian at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and former Historian at the Office of Special Investigations in the United States Department of Justice, submits a detailed affidavit reviewing the evidence in the file,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 F. Supp. 2d 86, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9983, 2001 WL 958762, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wasylyk-nynd-2001.