Nightingale
Nightingale v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Opinion
trial_court Opinion
1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 ZACHARY NIGHTINGALE, et al., Case No. 19-cv-03512-WHO
8 Plaintiffs,
ORDER GRANTING CLASS
9 v. CERTIFICATION
10 U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION Re: Dkt. No. 28 SERVICES, et al., 11 Defendants.
12 13 INTRODUCTION 14 Plaintiffs challenge the systematic delay noncitizens face in obtaining access to 15 immigration case files maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), and its 16 component agencies, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) and U.S. Immigration 17 and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) (collectively “defendants”). These files, commonly referred to 18 as Alien Registration Files (“A-Files”), contain documents relating to all interactions that a 19 noncitizen has had with the immigration system, and therefore are critical to defending against 20 removal or determining eligibility for immigration benefits. 21 The only way a noncitizen can obtain an A-File is by submitting a Freedom of Information 22 Act (“FOIA”)…