Case: 21-40062 Document: 00516134269 Page: 1 Date Filed: 12/16/2021 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED December 16, 2021 No. 21-40062 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk Rodrigo Vazquez, Plaintiff—Appellant, versus Antony Blinken, Secretary, U.S. Department of State, Defendant—Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas USDC No. 1:20-CV-13 Before Stewart, Haynes, and Graves, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam:* This case concerns the dismissal of Rodrigo Vazquez’s complaint challenging the denial of his passport application based on a determination that he failed to present sufficient evidence of U.S. citizenship. According to Vazquez, the district court erred in dismissing his claim under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) for lack of jurisdiction because * Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4. Case: 21-40062 Document: 00516134269 Page: 2 Date Filed: 12/16/2021 No. 21-40062 Section 1503(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) does not allow him to challenge his application denial in federal court. Because we have previously held that Section 1503(a) supplies an adequate remedy for challenges to failed passport applications foreclosing APA relief, we affirm. I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Rodrigo Vazquez was born in Matamoros, Mexico and resides directly across the border in Brownsville, Texas. According to Vazquez, he is a U.S. citizen by acquisition because his U.S. citizen father was physically present in the country for at least ten years before his birth and five of those years were after his father was 14 years of age. See 8 U.S.C. § 1401(g). In June 2014, Vazquez filed an application for a U.S. passport with the State Department. Included among the documents submitted was an affidavit from his father describing his presence in the United States and Mexico before the birth of his sons. In July 2014, the State Department sent Vazquez a letter requesting that he provide public documents to accompany the affidavit and support his father’s representation that he was present in the United States, such as school, employment, or military records. In August 2014, Vazquez sent the State Department the same affidavit as that in his original passport application without public documents but with a copy of his brother’s recently acquired passport.1 In September 2014, upon determining that Vazquez’s response was insufficient, the State Department sent him a second letter requesting public 1 In his brief and complaint, Vazquez draws attention to the fact that his brother Benjamin Vazquez received a passport in May 2014 after submitting an identical passport application. However, during oral argument the State Department revealed that Benjamin Vazquez’s passport has since been revoked. 2 Case: 21-40062 Document: 00516134269 Page: 3 Date Filed: 12/16/2021 No. 21-40062 documents.2 In October 2014, Vazquez replied with a letter referring the agency back to the materials he provided in August 2014 and asking for a final decision by …
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