Case: 19-11193 Date Filed: 07/08/2020 Page: 1 of 17 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-11193 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:18-cv-24027-CMA CANAL A MEDIA HOLDING, LLC, ERICK ARCHILA, Plaintiffs-Appellants, versus UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, et al., Defendants-Appellees. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (July 8, 2020) Before MARTIN and NEWSOM, Circuit Judges, and WATKINS, * District Judge. MARTIN, Circuit Judge: * Honorable W. Keith Watkins, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama, sitting by designation. Case: 19-11193 Date Filed: 07/08/2020 Page: 2 of 17 Plaintiffs Canal A Media Holding, LLC (“Canal A Media”) and Erick Archila appeal the District Court’s dismissal of their amended complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. They seek to challenge the decision by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) to deny Canal A Media’s petition for a work visa for Mr. Archila. Having carefully reviewed this case, and with the benefit of oral argument, we have decided that the denial of Canal A Media’s visa petition was final agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Also, we hold that 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(9) and (g) do not bar the Plaintiffs’ challenge to the visa petition denial. In keeping with these decisions, we reverse the District Court’s dismissal of the Plaintiffs’ claims. I. A. FACTUAL BACKGROUND On appeal of a district court’s grant of the motion to dismiss, our Court must accept the factual allegations in the plaintiffs’ pleadings as true and construe them in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. Perez v. USCIS, 774 F.3d 960, 964 (11th Cir. 2014) (per curiam). Established in 2006, Canal Antigua, S.A. (“Canal Antigua”) is a major news and entertainment media company in Guatemala. In 2016, Canal Antigua formed a wholly owned U.S.-based subsidiary, Canal A Media, as part of an effort by Canal Antigua to reach Spanish-speaking Central Americans in the U.S. media market. 2 Case: 19-11193 Date Filed: 07/08/2020 Page: 3 of 17 Canal Antigua wanted its president, Erick Archila, to serve as president of Canal A Media. Mr. Archila, a Guatemalan national, is not a U.S. citizen. On November 25, 2016, Canal A Media filed with USCIS a Form I-129 Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker (“I-129”) on behalf of Mr. Archila. An I-129 is the first step on the road to an “L-1A” visa, which allows a multinational corporation to transfer one of its “managerial” or “executive” employees to a branch, “affiliate,” or “subsidiary” of that company located in the United States. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(L); 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(l)(1)(i), (2)(i). At that time, Mr. Archila was already lawfully present in the United States on a “B-2” visitor visa. The I-129 thus requested that USCIS change Mr. Archila’s status from B-2 to L-1A. After Canal A Media submitted the I-129, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) initiated removal proceedings against Mr. Archila, charging him with removability for overstaying his B-2 ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals