In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 17-2040 JOHN DOE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. KIRSTJEN M. NIELSEN, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; JAMES W. MCCAMENT, Deputy Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and NICHOLAS COLUCCI, Chief, Immigrant Investor Program Office, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Defendants-Appellees. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 15-cv-01387 — John Z. Lee, Judge. ____________________ FEBRUARY 26, 2018 ____________________ Before RIPPLE, MANION, and SYKES, Circuit Judges. SYKES, Circuit Judge. Plaintiff John Doe seeks lawful per- manent residence in the United States under the 2 No. 17-2040 Employment-Based Immigration: Fifth Preference category (“EB-5”). This visa program requires applicants to demon- strate that they have invested or are currently investing capital in a “new commercial enterprise” within the United States. 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(A). To that end, Doe invested $500,000 in Elgin Assisted Living EB-5 Fund, LLC. That entity then loaned funds to Elgin Memory Care, LLC, so it could build and operate a memory care facility in Elgin, Illinois. Despite this investment, the U.S. Citizenship and Immi- gration Services (“USCIS”) denied Doe lawful permanent resident status. The USCIS expressed particular concern that the Elgin memory care center had not been built since it was first proposed in 2011. Doe objected to the decision and filed a lawsuit against the USCIS alleging that the denial of his application violated the Administrative Procedure Act. 5 U.S.C. §§ 701 et seq. The district court entered summary judgment in the government’s favor and Doe appealed. Doe is represented in this appeal by the Kameli Law Group, LLC. The law firm has three attorneys. John R. Floss is one of two associates and also Doe’s counsel of record. Taher Kameli is the firm’s principal. TAHER KAMELI LAW GROUP, Our Attorneys, http://www.kamelilawgroup.com/ our-attorneys/ (last visited Feb. 14, 2018). Illinois records list Kameli as the sole manager of the LLC. OFFICE OF THE ILL. SEC’Y OF STATE, http://www.ilsos.gov/corporatellc/. While briefing in this appeal was underway, the Securi- ties and Exchange Commission brought a civil action against Kameli for violating the Securities and Exchange Acts. Complaint, SEC v. Kameli, No. 17-cv-04686 (N.D. Ill. June 22, 2017). The agency filed an amended complaint late last No. 17-2040 3 month. First Amended Complaint, Kameli, No. 17-cv-04686 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 29, 2018). The SEC accuses Kameli of defraud- ing at least 226 immigrant investors who participated in the EB-5 immigrant investor program. Id. ¶¶ 1–2. More specifi- cally, the SEC alleges that Kameli solicited over $88 million to invest in a number of new commercial enterprises, only to squander and misappropriate some of those funds. Id. ¶¶ 9– 11. There is significant overlap between the SEC’s claims against Kameli and the facts in this case. Kameli is alleged to have misappropriated funds that were invested in the Elgin memory care center. Id. ¶¶ 159–167, 169. This supposedly left the project in debt and unfinished. Id. ¶¶ 195–96, 200–01. The SEC ...
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