Coughlin

Morris Coughlin and forty-eight other individuals (collectively “plaintiffs”) appeal the district court’s order granting defendants Richard Rogers’ (Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the Los Angeles District Office) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s motion to sever plaintiffs. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

I.

On February 12, 1996, plaintiffs filed a Complaint for a Writ in the Nature of Mandamus (“complaint”) in federal district court, requesting the court to compel the defendants to adjudicate forty-nine pending applications or petitions. The complaint alleges that mandamus relief is appropriate because defendants have unreasonably delayed adjudicating plaintiffs’ applications and petitions in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) and the United States Constitution.

The plaintiffs’ applications or petitions fall into six distinct categories: (1) twenty plaintiffs are United States citizens alleging the defendants have failed to adjudicate their petitions and applications on behalf of an alien spouse or child; (2) eleven plaintiffs are aliens alleging the defendants have failed to…