Ingo Pakleppa - See Web Site For Email

I have just been informed that I was wrong; the people who won the lawsuit
did end up getting their Green Card.

After the victory turned "hollow" as I stated below, there was another
lawsuit that eventually forced INS to issue the Green Cards despite the
fiscal year having ended.

Dan (and anybody who signs on to this), good luck! With this precedent, I
suspect that your case may end up being easier than the original one.


On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 02:26:37 -0700, Ingo Pakleppa - see web site for email
wrote:

    > I'm glad that this is happening. Hopefully, you also involved your local
    > Representatives.
    >
    > Also, let me mention that nearly identical cases have been filed in past
    > years, so there is some precedent. IIRC, it ended up as a hollow victory
    > for the plaintiffs. The court clearly confirmed that INS had an
    > obligation to decide the case before September 30 (legacy INS at the
    > time argued that because the approval was a discretionary decision, it
    > also was discretionary whether or not to even adjudicate. The court said
    > no to that reasoning; you must have a clear Yes or No answer by
    > September 30).
    >
    > It ended up hollow, though, because there was no remedy. The court
    > originally ordered INS to issue Green Cards to the plaintiffs. INS,
    > however, argued that it could not do that since Green Cards can only be
    > issued with visa numbers from Department of State, and there was no
    > category available. In other words "we don't have a Green Card
    > ourselves, so we can't give you one". Damages also were out of the
    > question; you generally cannot sue the US government for damages, at
    > least not in such cases.
    >
    > In your case, there is an additional twist in that the delay seems to be
    > outside of the control of CIS, namely by the FBI.
    >
    > In my mind, the one thing you could possibly achieve is an injunction
    > (actually, a mandamus), ordering CIS to decide your case immediately.
    > Since you only have a few days left, that would have to happen very
    > quickly. Given the involvement of the FBI, you might actually need two
    > mandamus - and since you aren't directly dealing with the FBI, I'm not
    > sure if you even have legal standing to get the one compelling the FBI
    > to process you quickly.
    >
    > On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 11:46:26 -0700, Dan wrote:
    >
    >> A class action lawsuit against BCIS was filed in Chicago on 09/16/03.
    >> The plaintiffs in the case are all people seeking adjustment of status
    >> or an application for a visa overseas, based on DV-2003, whose
    >> applications are not being processed due to administrative delay
    >> (typically caused by a delay in background checks). The lawsuit seeks
    >> to compel BCIS to process the plaintiffs' application under DV-2003 and
    >> to adjust the plaintiffs' status. If the lawsuit is successful it will
    >> allow BCIS to adjust the status of the plaintiffs this fiscal year.
    >>
    >> So far there are 5 individual plaintiffs listed in the complaint. It is
    >> beneficial for the case if there are more individual plaintiffs. If you
    >> are seeking adjustment of status based on DV-2003 and your adjustment
    >> is pending only because of a background check please contact me at the
    >> following address: [email protected]
    >>
    >> Please include the following information:
    >>
    >> name:
    >>
    >> interview date:
    >>
    >> which office did you apply at:
    >>
    >> What city do you live in:

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Dan

thanks Ingo,

here is a link to a website about the lawsuit (with pointers to
relevant lawsuits in the past).

http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~stefanko/lawsuit/

Dan