AILA and Partners Submit Amicus Brief on APA Challenges to USCIS’s Inaction on Waiver Applications

After district court judges dismissed the plaintiffs’ APA challenges because USCIS’s inaction on their I-601A waiver applications was a “decision or action… regarding a waiver” barred from review, AILA and partners submitted an amicus brief to the Eighth Circuit Court urging that the decisions of the district courts should be reversed. The brief argued that the district courts erred in finding that 8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(9)(B)(v), barring judicial review of “a decision or action… regarding a waiver” under that provision, barring Appellants’ suit challenging USCIS’s failure to act. The brief argues that courts may not read such statutory language to bar judicial review if a reasonable reading supporting review is available. In this case, the common-language understanding of “decision or action” excludes a failure to act.