Case: 18-12462 Date Filed: 04/16/2020 Page: 1 of 11 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-12462 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:14-cv-23654-KMW EVELIA BUENO, Plaintiff – Appellant, versus USCIS KENDALL FIELD OFFICE, Director, USCIS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, U.S. Department of Justice, Defendants - Appellees. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (April 16, 2020) Case: 18-12462 Date Filed: 04/16/2020 Page: 2 of 11 Before JORDAN, JILL PRYOR, and WALKER, ∗ Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: The policies of recent U.S. administrations toward Cuban immigration have evolved significantly from the policy that prevailed during the 1990s. Evelia Bueno, a Cuban immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1994 but did not apply for citizenship until 2012, learned this in a very personal way when her petition for citizenship was denied by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service in 2013. USCIS ruled that Ms. Bueno had procured entry into the United States by fraud, and therefore had not lawfully entered the United States in 1994, rendering her ineligible for citizenship. It made this determination despite the fact that, over 15 years earlier, the Immigration and Nationality Service had adjusted Ms. Bueno’s status to that of lawful permanent resident and had never found that she had committed fraud in the course of her adjustment of status. Not surprisingly, Ms. Bueno sued USCIS in federal court. Ms. Bueno appeals the order of the district court granting summary judgment in favor of USCIS. Unfortunately, she has both abandoned a key argument on appeal (by not including it in her briefs) and has waived another central argument on appeal (by failing to raise it before the district court). We decline to overlook these pleading ∗The Honorable John M. Walker, Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, sitting by designation. 2 Case: 18-12462 Date Filed: 04/16/2020 Page: 3 of 11 deficiencies to grapple with the complicated substantive questions that this case presents, and therefore affirm. I In 1994, Ms. Bueno, a Cuban national, boarded a flight in Paris, France that was ultimately bound for Panama after a United States layover. Ms. Bueno never made it to Panama, instead cutting her trip short at the flight’s layover in Miami. The airline was participating in the transit without visa (“TWOV”) program, which permitted aliens traveling from one foreign country to another to proceed through the United States without a passport or visa during U.S. layovers between their flights. The TWOV program barred airlines from permitting Cuban nationals to board a participating flight. So, in order to board the Paris-to-Miami leg of her trip, Ms. Bueno presented a ticket and a photo-switched Costa Rican passport with a false name to airline officials in Paris. Upon arriving in the United States, Ms. Bueno presented her authentic Cuban passport to U.S. immigration officials, and told them how she boarded the plane in France. She never presented the Costa ...
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