Duran Gonzales v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Aurelio Duran Gonzalez, along with six individuals (“Plaintiffs”), voluntarily filed applications for adjustment of status, thus disclosing that they were aliens who had been removed and had reentered the United States without inspection. They did this in reliance on the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Perez-Gonzalez v. Ashcroft, 379 F.3d 783 (9th Cir.2004), wherein the court purportedly held that individuals like Plaintiffs were eligible for relief. The district court certified Plaintiffs’ proposed class and issued a preliminary injunction.

The government appealed, and in Duran Gonzales v. Department of Homeland Security, 508 F.3d 1227 (9th Cir.2007) (“Duran Gonzales II ”), we held that, pursuant to the Supreme Court’s directions in National Cable & Telecommunications Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Services, 545 U.S. 967, 981-985 , 125 S.Ct. 2688 , 162 L.Ed.2d 820 (2005) (“Brand X ”), we were compelled to follow the 2006 opinion by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) in In re Torres-Garcia, 23 I. & N. Dec. 866 (BIA 2006). In In re Torres-Garcia, the BIA held that individuals such as Plaintiffs were not eligible for relief. We held that, because this was a reasonable…