In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 18‐1205 MOSHIN YAFAI and ZAHOOR AHMED, Plaintiffs‐Appellants, v. MIKE POMPEO, Secretary of State, et al., Defendants‐Appellees. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 1:16‐cv‐09728 — Sara L. Ellis, Judge. ____________________ ARGUED SEPTEMBER 7, 2018 — DECIDED JANUARY 4, 2019 ____________________ Before FLAUM, RIPPLE, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges. BARRETT, Circuit Judge. A consular officer twice denied the visa application of Zahoor Ahmed, a citizen of Yemen, on the ground that she had sought to smuggle two children into the United States. Ahmed and her husband Moshin Yafai—a United States citizen—filed suit challenging the officer’s decision. But the decision is facially legitimate and bona fide, so the district court correctly dismissed the plaintiffs’ 2 No. 18‐1205 challenge to it under the doctrine of consular nonreviewability. I. Moshin Yafai and Zahoor Ahmed were born, raised, and married in Yemen. Yafai became a naturalized United States citizen in 2001. After receiving his citizenship, Yafai filed I‐ 130 petitions with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service of the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of his wife and several of their children. The I‐130 petitions— which, if granted, would permit them to apply for immigrant visas—were approved. Ahmed and her children subsequently applied for visas. But the consular officer denied Ahmed’s visa application.1 The officer based the denial on attempted smuggling under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(E), which provides that “[a]ny alien who at any time knowingly has encouraged, induced, assisted, abetted, or aided any other alien to enter or to try to enter the United States in violation of law is inadmissible.” The denial stated: “You attempted to smuggle two children into the United States using the identities Yaqub Mohsin Yafai and Khaled Mohsin Yafai.” Yafai and Ahmed told the embassy that Yaqub and Khaled were their children, both of whom had tragically drowned. Although it is not entirely clear from either the record or the plaintiffs’ brief, their position seems to have been that Ahmed could not be guilty of smuggling, because the children whom she had allegedly smuggled were deceased. In response, the 1 The record does not reveal the name of the consular officer (or officers) who worked on Ahmed’s case, so we refer to this person (or persons) throughout as “the consular officer” or “the officer.” No. 18‐1205 3 consular officer requested additional documents about the children so that the officer could reconsider Ahmed’s application. The officer requested (and Ahmed provided) seven types of documents: (1) vaccination records; (2) Khaled’s school records; (3) hospital bills; (4) hospital birth records; (5) the police report from the drowning accident; (6) Khaled’s passport; and (7) family photos. After providing the documents, the plaintiffs’ attorney contacted the consular office to request an update on the matter. An embassy fraud prevention manager working on Ahmed’s case responded by email. The email stated: We acknowledge that there has been some repetition in examining the ...
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