20-1512-cv Kakar v. USCIS 1 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 2 FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 3 4 August Term, 2021 5 6 (Argued: September 3, 2021 Decided: March 28, 2022) 7 8 Docket No. 20-1512-cv 9 10 _____________________________________ 11 12 MOHAMED QASEEM KAKAR, 13 14 Plaintiff-Appellant, 15 16 v. 17 18 UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, 19 20 Defendant-Appellee. 21 22 _____________________________________ 23 24 Before: 25 26 WALKER, CALABRESI, and LOHIER, Circuit Judges. 27 28 Over twenty years ago, an Immigration Judge granted Mohamed Qaseem Kakar, 29 an Afghan national, asylum in the United States. When Kakar later applied for 30 lawful permanent residence, the United States Citizenship and Immigration 31 Services (USCIS) denied his application because it found that he had engaged in 32 terrorist activity that rendered him inadmissible. Kakar challenged USCIS’s 33 denial as arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act 34 (APA). On review, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of 35 New York affirmed the denial under the “weapons bar” of the Immigration and 36 Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B)(iii)(V). The question on appeal is 37 whether USCIS, in denying Kakar’s application, adequately explained the 1 unlawfulness of Kakar’s acts under United States law, and whether in doing so it 2 considered his claim of duress. Because we are unable to discern USCIS’s full 3 reasoning for denying Kakar’s application or to conclude that the agency 4 considered all factors relevant to its decision, we conclude that its decision was 5 arbitrary and capricious under the APA. We therefore VACATE the judgment 6 and REMAND the case to the District Court with instructions to remand to 7 USCIS for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. 8 9 MICHAEL E. PISTON, New York, NY, for Plaintiff- 10 Appellant Mohamed Qaseem Kakar. 11 12 LAYALIZA SOLOVEICHIK, Assistant United States 13 Attorney (Varuni Nelson, Assistant United States 14 Attorney, on the brief), for Breon S. Peace, United States 15 Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, 16 Brooklyn, NY, for Defendant-Appellee United States 17 Citizenship and Immigration Services. 18 19 20 LOHIER, Circuit Judge: 21 Over twenty years ago, an Immigration Judge (IJ) granted Mohamed 22 Qaseem Kakar, an Afghan national, asylum in the United States. When Kakar 23 later applied for lawful permanent residence, the United States Citizenship and 24 Immigration Services (USCIS) denied his application because it found that he 25 had engaged in terrorist activity that rendered him inadmissible. Kakar 26 challenged USCIS’s denial as arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative 27 Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 701–706. On review, the United States District 28 Court for the Eastern District of New York (Matsumoto, J.) affirmed the denial 2 1 under the “weapons bar” of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 2 § 1182(a)(3)(B)(iii)(V). The question on appeal is whether USCIS, in denying 3 Kakar’s application, adequately explained the unlawfulness of Kakar’s acts 4 under United States law, which is a necessary element of …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals