Yeboah v. INS: PA District Court Denies INS Motion to Dismiss Review...in SIJ Case

IMMIGRATION LAW & POLICY

Obtaining Lawful Permanent Residence Status

YEBOAH V. INS: PA DISTRICT COURT DENIES INS MOTION TO DISMISS REVIEW OF AGENCY'S REFUSAL TO CONSENT IN SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE CASE
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 15, No. 8, Dec. 20, 2001

A federal court in eastern Pennsylvania has denied the Immigration and Naturalization Service's motion to dismiss an 11 year-old Ghanaian boy's complaint requesting review of the agency's refusal to consent to a dependency proceeding in his special immigrant juvenile (SIJ) case. The INS discovered Yeboah at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York after he arrived without parents, guardian, or travel documents. The INS placed him in custody and sought to return him to Ghana. Yeboah then applied for SIJ status.

SIJ status is relief available to abused and neglected children who are eligible for long-term foster care and declared dependent by a court. An administrative or judicial proceeding must also determine that it is not in their best interest to be returned to their homelands. In cases like Yeboah's, a dependency court can issue a dependency order only if the INS consents to a state juvenile court's jurisdiction to do so. After the INS district director refused to consent, Yeboah sought relief in district court by filing a complaint. Arguing that the decision to consent to a dependency court's jurisdiction is in the attorney general's exclusive discretion, the INS moved to dismiss his case based on the court's lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

The district court began its analysis by noting that the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) provides for comprehensive judicial review of agency actions. The INS had argued that, despite the broad presumption of reviewability, its action fit within one of the APA's two exceptions precluding judicial review: it contended that its decision to withhold consent constituted action that "is committed to agency discretion by law." The district court disagreed.

In reaching its ruling, the district court assessed whether the statute providing for SIJ status met the standard articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the applicability of the APA's "committed to agency discretion by law" exception. That standard limits the exception to cases where the statute at issue is "drawn in such broad terms that in a given case there is no law to apply." In other words, decision-making authority is considered "committed" to the agency's nonreviewable judgment only if the statute is drawn so broadly that it does not contain a meaningful standard against which to judge an agency's action. The district court then reviewed Chong v. Director, United States Information Agency, 821 F.2d 171 (3d Cir. 1987). There, the Third Circuit found that the existence of regulations delineating procedures to be followed by the agency provided "sufficient guidance to make possible judicial review under an abuse of discretion standard." Following Chong, in Yeboah's case, the district court found that the INS had adopted internal procedures providing a standard by which its discretionary actions could be judged. Therefore, the APA exception cited by the INS did not apply. Accordingly, the court denied the INS's motion to dismiss Yeboah's complaint.

Yeboah v. INS, 2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17360, No.01-CV-3337 (E.D. PA Oct. 26, 2001).