Mohamed v. United States Citizenship & Immigration Servs.

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AHMED MOHAMED, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, et al., Defendants.

CIVIL No. 1:23cvl448 (DJN)

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Alexandria Division

September 27, 2024

MEMORANDUM OPINION

David J. Novak United States District Judge

This action, brought pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. § 702 et seq. (“APA”), comes before the Court on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment. (ECF Nos 25, 27.) Plaintiffs Ahmed Mohamed (“Mohamed”) and Yuliya Smirnova (“Smirnova”) argue that Defendant United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it denied Smirnova's 1-130 Petition for Alien Relative on behalf of Mohamed. (ECF No. 25 (“Pls.' Mot.”) at 24.) Specifically, Plaintiffs assert that USCIS failed to identify the substantial and probative evidence required under 8 U.S.C. § 1154(c) to prove that Mohamed's prior marriage to Kaira Marie Henderson (“Henderson”) qualified as fraudulent. (Id. at 8-19.) Plaintiffs also contend that USCIS applied the wrong standard of proof when reviewing Smirnova's rebuttal evidence, including affidavits in which Mohamed and Henderson retracted their earlier admissions of marriage fraud. (Id. at 19-23.)

Defendants counter that USCIS reasonably concluded that substantial and probative evidence supported the finding of a fraudulent marriage between Henderson and Mohamed, and that Henderson's and Mohamed's recantations of their earlier admissions concerning the marriage were considered but given little to no evidentiary weight. (ECF No. 28 (“Defs.' Mem.”) at 16-26.) Defendants contend that USCIS also applied the proper standard of proof in reviewing Plaintiffs' rebuttal evidence, and that even if the wrong standard was applied any resulting error was harmless. (Id. at 25.)

For the following reasons, the Court will DENY Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 25) and GRANT Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 27).

I. BACKGROUND

The following facts from the parties' briefs and the certified administrative record^[1] stand undisputed unless otherwise indicated.

Mohamed, an Egyptian citizen, was admitted to the United States on May 12,2002. (R. at 87,112-13, 800.) On December 4, 2003, he married Kaira Marie Henderson (“Henderson”), a United States citizen, in the State of Maryland. (R. at 860.) On January 15, 2004, Henderson filed a Form 1-130 Petition for Alien Relative (the “Henderson petition”) on Mohamed's behalf. (R. at 854-82.) Henderson attached documents bearing both Mohamed and Henderson's names, including a marriage certificate (R. at 860), a residential lease (R. at 864-66), a cable bill (R. at 872-75) and a voided check (R. at 863). Around the same time, Mohamed filed a Form 1-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence (the “first 1-485 Application”), seeking to become a permanent resident of the United States. (R. at 783-86.) On both the Henderson petition and the first 1-485 Application, Mohamed and Henderson identified their address as 300 Robin Drive, Apartment 305, Ocean City, Maryland 21842. (R. at 783, 854, 864.)

USCIS interviewed both Henderson and Mohamed as part of his first 1-485 Application on or about April 14, 2004. (R. at 62, 64.) USCIS Officer Peggy Lin, who conducted the interview, memorialized her observations in a report that same day. (R. at 51.) Officer Lin suspected a sham marriage and recommended an on-site investigation to determine if Henderson and Mohamed had entered a bona fide marriage. (R. at 51.) Specifically, Officer Lin noted Henderson's “strange behavior,” as she played games on her phone and seemed “totally unconcerned” during Mohamed's interview. (R. at 51.) Officer Lin also noted that Henderson stated that she lived in Apartment 304 despite the forms listing their address as Apartment 305. (R. at 51.) Further, Officer Lin suspected that Mohamed and Henderson were “introduced/arranged” at their place of employment, Ledo's Pizza, by the owner, who was Mohamed's friend, and Henderson's aunt. (R. at 51.) Lastly, Officer Lin noted that Henderson had been “unemployed for almost four years” until she started working at Ledo's, and that Henderson and Mohamed's relationship, from first meeting through marriage and the filing of the Henderson petition, developed rapidly. (R. at 51.)

In a later affidavit, Mohamed stated that Henderson “came around less often” between April 2004 and the end of 2004, and “it became clear that neither of [them] had the energy to pursue [their] marriage.” (R. at 291.) He further stated that they did not formally separate and remained friends. (R. at 291.) On or about January 7, 2005, Mohamed submitted an Alien's Change of Address Card reflecting his new address as 155 Jamestown Road, Apartment 202, Ocean City, Maryland 21842. (R. at 794.)

On or about June 1, 2005, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) began investigating the Henderson-Mohamed marriage and spoke with officers of the Fruitland Police Department who were “very familiar with Henderson” and “were not aware of her having a husband of Egyptian heritage.” (R. at 56.) According to Fruitland officers, Henderson resided with her sister at 219 Morris Street, Fruitland, Maryland 21826 and bore a child with another man. (R. at 57.)

On June 2, 2005, ICE and Fruitland officers visited Henderson at 219 Morris Street. (R. at 57-58.) According to a written report prepared by ICE (“the ICE report”), Henderson answered the door, stated that there was another man in the house and spoke with officers on the front step. (R. at 58.) The report states that Henderson “claims the sole reason for marrying [Mohamed] was out of friendship” and stated that “she was not in love with [Mohamed], and only married him because he needed a United States wife so he could get insurance benefits and a social security card.” (R. at 58.) The ICE report also states that Henderson denied that she and Mohamed ever consummated the marriage, noting that a single encounter “was the extent of their sexual relationship.” (R. 58-59.) Henderson reported that she and Mohamed never lived together, and she “agreed to withdraw the [Henderson] petition.” (R. at 59.)

That same morning, ICE officers visited Mohamed at his new address at 155 Jamestown Road. (R. at 59.) Mohamed let the officers into his apartment where they noticed one woman in his bedroom and two other women sleeping on a pullout couch. (R. at 60.) According to the ICE report, Mohamed claimed to have given Henderson “five hundred dollars on several occasions” and stated that they “never entered into the marriage because they were in ‘love.'” (R. at 61.) Mohamed then reportedly stated that “he knew what he had done [was] wrong, but he desperately want[ed] to live in the United States legally.” (R. at 61.) Following these interviews and its investigation, ICE later concluded that Mohamed and Henderson “entered into the marriage ... solely to gain benefits from the Service.” (R. at 410.) Mohamed filed for divorce from Henderson on August 8, 2005, and the divorce became final on May 11,2006. (R. at 573, 753-55.)

Mohamed signed and dated a sworn statement (the “2010 Mohamed statement”) before USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (“FDNS”) on March 9, 2010. (R. at 2-6, 375-76.) Mohamed also certified “under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America, that the foregoing is true and correct” and swore and affirmed that he had “read and fully [understood] the questions and answers in [his] sworn statement.” (R. at 6, 376.) In the sworn statement, Mohamed provided the following answers to the following questions and signed his initials next to each of those answers:

Q: Was your marriage to Kaira Marie Henderson for the sole purpose of obtaining immigration benefits?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you pay Kaira Marie Henderson any money and/or promise her anything in return for the fraudulent marriage?

A: Money yes but I did not promise her anything. Whenever she needed money for rent and shopping.

Q: Have you and Kaira Marie Henderson ever resided together?

A: We only resided one day.

Q: Was your alleged marriage with Kaira Marie Henderson ever consummated?

A: No.

(R. at 5, 375.) On March 16,2010, USCIS denied the Henderson petition after determining that Mohamed's and Henderson's marital relationship no longer legally existed due to their divorce and that they had entered into a sham marriage based on their statements to ICE in 2005 and Mohamed's sworn statement to FDNS in 2010. (R. at 36-39, 848-51.) USCIS also denied Mohamed's first 1-485 Application that same day. (R. at 783.)

On May 6, 2013, Mohamed married Smirnova. (R. at 435, 572.) Smirnova then filed an 1-130 Petition (the “first Smirnova petition”) on Mohamed's behalf on December 6, 2013. (R. at 567-69.)

Mohamed additionally filed another Form 1-485 (the “second 1-485 Application”) seeking permanent resident status. (R. at 507-16.) Mohamed spoke with USCIS on December 23, 2015, during an interview as part of his second 1-485 Application. (R. at 377-78, 557-58, 577-78.) In that statement, Mohamed claimed that, back when he met with officers at his apartment in 2005, he was “assisting the ICE office in Ocean City” in arresting an individual who was arranging marriages and was told by ICE that they were “going to help [him].” (R. at 378, 557-58, 578.) Mohamed also stated that, without reading its contents, he signed the 2010 Mohamed statement, in which he stated that he married Henderson to obtain immigration benefits, because the officers told him they were going to help him for “the work that [he] was doing with them.” (R. at 378, 557-58, 578.)

One month later, on January 21, 2016, USCIS...