Immigration – Naturalization Denied

Listen to this article

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Laith William Murad Bijan v. United States Citizenship & Immigration Services

Case No.: 17-3545

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and SCUDDER and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Immigration – Naturalization Denied

Five years after entering the United States, ostensibly as the unmarried son of a lawful permanent resident, Laith Bijan applied to become a naturalized citizen. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) denied his application, concluding that Bijan actually had been married when he entered the country and had thus misrepresented his eligibility for lawful permanent residence and citizenship. Bijan sought judicial review of that decision. Reviewing USCIS’s decision de novo, the district court concluded that Bijan had misrepresented his marital status and lied under oath during a naturalization interview when he denied giving “false or misleading information” while applying for an immigration benefit. We affirm on the alternate ground that Bijan previously had given the agency false information when he failed to disclose on his visa application that he had two children and later lied about that omission.

On appeal Bijan argues that genuine issues of fact exist regarding his marital status when he became a lawful permanent resident in 2004 and the truthfulness of the information that he gave the government. He is entitled to pursue these arguments because “Congress specifically calls for de novo re‐ view in naturalization cases.” O’Sullivan v. USCIS, 453 F.3d 809, 811–12 (7th Cir. 2006). They are thus not subject to the rules governing typical immigration cases, in which we are bound by an immigration judge’s factual and credibility determinations. Further, although it is Bijan’s burden to establish eligibility for naturalization, see Berenyi v. Dist. Dir., INS, 385 U.S. 630, 636–37 (1967), he needs only to raise a fact question to survive summary judgment. See Injeti v. USCIS, 737 F.3d 311, 315 (4th Cir. 2013).

The undisputed facts show that Bijan was aware of the misrepresentation on his visa application and thus that he intended to obtain an immigration benefit—naturalization—by denying that he had made it. See Kungys v. United States, 485 U.S. 759, 779–80 (1988). During oral argument, Bijan’s counsel questioned whether Bijan knew he had omitted his children from his visa application in 2003, given his limited English and the fact that someone else had filled out the application on his behalf. But what matters for purposes of Bijan’s naturalization application is his false testimony with USCIS in 2012. See 8 C.F.R. § 316.10(b)(2)(vi). Even if Bijan was unaware of the omission at the time it was made, he was certainly aware of it by the time USCIS brought it up—first, when the agency denied visas for his children in 2006, and second, when it initially denied his naturalization application in April 2012. By the time Bijan testified in November 2012 that he had “never given false or misleading information,” he had to have known his statement was false. Because of this, Bijan cannot meet his burden of establishing eligibility for naturalization.

Affirmed

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.