Opinion ID: 176349
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: District Court’s Remand

Text: This case falls in between the Tenth Circuit’s Al-Maleki decision and the First Circuit’s Aronov decision. Here, the district court’s remand order actually granted Abdelgalel’s request for a writ of mandamus and directed the USCIS to adjudicate the application within a specific, narrow period of time, i.e., within ninety days. This is one of the two forms of relief authorized under § 1447(b). Thus, the remand order requiring the USCIS to adjudicate Abdelgalel’s application afforded Abdelgalel “some relief” on the merits. Furthermore, the district court’s remand order changed the legal relationship between the parties, as required by Buckhannon. At the time he filed his action, Abedelgalel had waited for over two years for the USCIS to make a determination on his application. The district court’s order required the USCIS to make that determination within ninety days and reserved the right to reassert jurisdiction if the USCIS failed to comply. The USCIS would have violated the remand order had it failed to adjudicate Abdelgalel’s application within the court-ordered time frame. By giving Abdelgalel a legally-enforceable right to adjudication within ninety days, the remand order changed the legal relationship between the parties. 16 The government characterizes the USCIS’s adjudication of Abdelgalel’s application as “voluntary.” However, the USCIS’s adjudication was not voluntary in the Buckhannon sense. Rather, at the time the application was approved, the USCIS was under a court order pursuant to § 1447(b) to do so by September 17, 2009, and had no choice in the matter. This fact materially distinguishes this case from Morillo-Cedron, in which the district court had issued a show cause order, but had not yet acted on the merits of the request for mandamus relief. In other words, unlike here, the government in Morillo-Cedron acted on the plaintiffs’ applications before being ordered to do so. The government defendants argue that Abdelgalel did not prevail because he opposed their motion to remand. This is not a complete characterization of Abdelgalel’s position in the district court. Given what Abdelgalel believed was bad faith on the government’s part, Abdelgalel’s first preference was for the district court itself to address his application. However, Abdelgalel’s response to the motion to remand alternatively requested that, if the district court chose to remand, it give the USCIS a finite period of time in which to act. This position was consistent with Abdelgalel’s complaint, which prayed in the alternative for an order requiring the USCIS to act on his application. And, the district court granted 17 Abdelgalel this requested relief. Thus, Abdelgalel satisfied the EAJA’s prevailing party requirement. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s denial of Abdelgalel’s motion to confirm his naturalization. However, we reverse the district court’s finding that Abdelgalel had not satisfied the EAJA’s “prevailing party” requirement. On remand, the district court must address whether Abdelgalel has satisfied the other requirements of the EAJA, namely whether the government’s position in the § 1447(b) proceedings was substantially justified or if special circumstances make an award of attorneys fees and costs unjust, issues upon which we express no opinion. AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSE AND REMANDED IN PART. 18