UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ____________________________________ ) CLAUDIA ARELY MOLINA ) DE RAMIREZ, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action. No. 18-1516 (PLF) ) WILLIAM P. BARR, et al., ) ) Defendants. ) ____________________________________) OPINION On June 26, 2018, plaintiff Claudia Arely Molina de Ramirez filed a civil complaint [Dkt. No. 1] challenging the Trump Administration’s Zero-Tolerance Policy of separating certain immigrant parents from their children at the United States-Mexico border. See Complaint at 1. Ms. Ramirez is a citizen of El Salvador and the mother of three minor children who would like to seek asylum in the United States; she and her children have not been separated under the challenged Zero-Tolerance Policy. See id. at 9, 33. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss [Dkt. No. 13] on September 14, 2018. 1 Upon careful consideration of the briefs, the relevant legal authorities, and the entire record in this case, the Court will grant defendants’ 1 Ms. Ramirez sued the following individual defendants in their official capacities: the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions; Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen; Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar; Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement Scott Lloyd; and Kevin McAleenan, Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. See Complaint at 1. Pursuant to Rule 25(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the current holder of each of these offices is substituted for his or her predecessor as a party to this litigation. 1 motion to dismiss. 2 The Court concludes that Ms. Ramirez does not have constitutional standing to challenge a policy under which she has suffered no injury. Accordingly, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to resolve her claims. I. BACKGROUND On April 6, 2018, the Attorney General of the United States announced the Zero- Tolerance Policy, under which all immigrant parents unlawfully crossing the United States- Mexico border with their children would be subject to criminal prosecution and forcibly separated from their children. See Jacinto-Castanon de Nolasco v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enf’t, 319 F. Supp. 3d 491, 494-95 (D.D.C. 2018). On June 20, 2018 – before Ms. Ramirez filed the instant suit – President Trump issued an Executive Order rescinding and clarifying several aspects of the Zero-Tolerance Policy and stating the government’s policy of housing parents and children together, subject to certain limitations. See Exec. Order No. 13,841, 83 Fed. Reg. 29,435 (June 20, 2018). Ms. Ramirez filed suit to challenge the legality of the Zero-Tolerance Policy and the conduct that defendants undertook in applying it. But unlike plaintiffs in a number of the other suits challenging the Trump Administration’s Zero-Tolerance Policy, Ms. Ramirez has not actually been separated from her children by the United States government – under the challenged policy or otherwise. Instead, Ms. Ramirez is already in the United States, Response at 2; Reply at 2, and “she wishes to return to El Salvador and bring her children back ...
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