UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ) CECILIA MARIA FUENTES ) BOTELLO, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action No. 19-cv-3277 (TSC) ) DONALD J. TRUMP et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ) ) MEMORANDUM OPINION Plaintiff Cecilia Maria Fuentes Botello, appearing pro se, has brought this “Action to Compel an Officer of the United States to Do Its Duties 28 U.S.C. § 1361 in Enforcing the Asylum Laws, 8 U.S.C. § 1158 and 8 U.S.C. §1225 and Under UN Treaty of International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights of 1992 Et Al,” ECF No. 1. Defendants have moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, ECF No. 13, and Plaintiff has moved to amend the complaint, ECF No. 24. 1 For the following reasons, Defendants’ motion will be GRANTED, and Plaintiff’s motion will be DENIED. 2 1 Also pending is Defendants’ motion filed “in an abundance of caution” to seal their declarations “to provide Fuentes Botello greater confidentiality” and to satisfy the nondisclosure provisions of 8 C.F.R. § 208.6(a)(b). Mot. at 1, ECF No. 14. The court, having considered Plaintiff’s opposition evidencing her consent to disclosure, see ECF No.15, will deny the motion to seal. 2 “A district court may deny a motion to amend a complaint as futile if the proposed claim would not survive a motion to dismiss.” Hettinga v. United States, 677 F.3d 471, 480 (D.C. Cir. 2012). 1 I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff alleges that she “is or was a Cuban National” who in February 2019 was “physically detained [in Cuba] and harassed by Cuban Authorities for political retaliation due to making a comment, on Cuba's political Referendum of Article Ill for the New Constitution voted on February 24, 2019.” Compl. at 2. Following an allegedly horrendous three-day detention, Plaintiff was released from custody on February 25, 2019. See Pl.’s Aff. at 10-13, ECF No.1-1. That same day, Plaintiff’s mother called an aunt in California who suggested that Plaintiff go to Mexico to apply for political asylum in the United States, where she could then live with her aunt. Id. at 13–14. On April 16, 2019, Plaintiff flew from Cuba to Nicaragua, where she paid a “Coyote” to take her to Mexico. Id. at 14. On April 23, 2019, Plaintiff arrived in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, where she suffered serious setbacks. See id. at 14-15. Eventually, Plaintiff traveled by bus to Mexico City, and on May 19, 2019, she arrived in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas. See id.at 15-16. In Juarez, Plaintiff worked for meager pay and lived in squalid, unsafe conditions; by October 2019, she was unemployed. See id. at 16-19. Plaintiff alleges that “the Cuban Government has classified [her] as a, ‘Cusano’ . . . or ‘Worm’ in English,” which “is a death penalty crime against the Revolution[.]” Compl. at 2. It is for this reason that Plaintiff “seeks” asylum in the United States. Id. (citing 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(1) and § 1225(b)). She seeks ...
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