Filed: Jun. 10, 2020
Latest Update: Jun. 10, 2020
Summary: FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION JUN 10 2020 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT JASON SINAGWANA NSINANO, AKA No. 18-55582 Jason Nsinano, D.C. No. Petitioner-Appellant, 5:17-cv-00094-VBF-GJS v. MEMORANDUM* WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, Respondent-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Valerie Baker Fairbank, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted May 14, 2020 Portland, Oregon
Summary: FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION JUN 10 2020 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT JASON SINAGWANA NSINANO, AKA No. 18-55582 Jason Nsinano, D.C. No. Petitioner-Appellant, 5:17-cv-00094-VBF-GJS v. MEMORANDUM* WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General, Respondent-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Valerie Baker Fairbank, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted May 14, 2020 Portland, Oregon ..
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FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
JUN 10 2020
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
JASON SINAGWANA NSINANO, AKA No. 18-55582
Jason Nsinano,
D.C. No.
Petitioner-Appellant, 5:17-cv-00094-VBF-GJS
v.
MEMORANDUM*
WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General,
Respondent-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Valerie Baker Fairbank, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted May 14, 2020
Portland, Oregon
Before: BYBEE and VANDYKE, Circuit Judges, and CHHABRIA,** District
Judge.
While detained by immigration authorities, Petitioner Jason Nsinano filed a
petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. The primary relief
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The Honorable Vince Chhabria, United States District Judge for the
Northern District of California, sitting by designation.
sought by the petition was a law enforcement certification under 8 U.S.C.
§ 1184(p) that would enable Nsinano to apply for a U-visa. The district court
dismissed the petition for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Because the parties
are familiar with the facts, we do not recite them here except as necessary. We
dismiss the appeal.
1. Nsinano argues that, under a liberal construction of his pro se habeas
petition, he alleged a due process-based challenge to his prolonged detention
without a bond hearing. Assuming that is true, Nsinano’s due process claim is
moot because he has since been released from immigration custody on bond. See
Abdala v. INS,
488 F.3d 1061, 1064 (9th Cir. 2007) (“[A] petitioner’s release from
detention under an order of supervision moot[s] his challenge to the legality of his
extended detention.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). In other words,
Nsinano’s due process claim was “fully resolved by release from custody.”
Id. at
1065. His reliance on Diouf v. Napolitano,
634 F.3d 1081 (9th Cir. 2011), and
Rodriguez v. Hayes,
591 F.3d 1105 (9th Cir. 2010), is misplaced because those
cases dealt with habeas petitioners who were no longer in custody at the
Government’s discretion and no legal impediment to redetention existed. See
Diouf, 634 F.3d at 1084 n.3 (petitioner released pursuant to a preliminary
injunction that was subsequently vacated, and Government “elected [not] to
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redetain him”);
Rodriguez, 591 F.3d at 1117 (petitioner released under regulatory
provision providing immigration authorities near total discretion to redetain
petitioner). Thus, Nsinano’s due process claim is moot.
2. As for Nsinano’s request for a U-visa certification, we lack jurisdiction to
review this issue. We agree that the district court appears to have misinterpreted
Nsinano’s claim as a challenge to the denial of a U-visa application. Nsinano
asked only for a law enforcement certification under 8 U.S.C. § 1184(p). But this
misinterpretation is of little import here, for the district court indicated near the end
of its order that it would not issue a certification because “[t]he appropriate Court
to issue a law enforcement certification is the court that dealt with the underlying
criminal case (if one exists) or the agency that investigated the criminal
complaint.”
A district court’s decision not to issue a law enforcement certification is an
administrative action, not a judicial one. When faced with a request for a
certification, a judge has discretion whether to certify that the requestor “has been
helpful, is being helpful, or is likely to be helpful” to an investigation or
prosecution of qualifying criminal activity. 8 U.S.C. § 1184(p)(1). If the judge
chooses to make that certification, the judge must sign the certification form under
penalty of perjury. See Perez Perez v. Wolf,
943 F.3d 853, 857–58 (9th Cir. 2019).
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Here, the district judge’s refusal to perform the administrative act of signing the
certification on the grounds she articulated does not result in an appealable
decision under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. See In re Application for Exemption from Elec.
Pub. Access Fees by Jennifer Gollan & Shane Shifflett,
728 F.3d 1033, 1039–40
(9th Cir. 2013) (holding that we lack jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 to review
a district court’s “administrative or ministerial order”).
APPEAL DISMISSED.
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