Bushireddy v. Lyons

Summary

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia holds that Mansi Reddy Bushireddy’s challenge to ICE’s termination of her F-1 student status and SEVIS record is not moot. The court concludes that ICE’s termination based on a dismissed misdemeanor charge was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, and that the Privacy Act does not preclude the claim. The court therefore grants Bushireddy summary judgment.

Holdings

1. The case was not moot because ICE failed to establish that the challenged termination could not reasonably be expected to recur and had not completely and irrevocably eradicated the termination's effects.
2. The Privacy Act did not preclude Bushireddy's APA claim because she was not eligible to sue under the Privacy Act and her grievance concerned the unlawful alteration of her immigration status, not merely the accuracy of an agency record.
3. ICE's termination of Bushireddy's SEVIS record was final agency action subject to judicial review under the APA.
4. ICE's termination of Bushireddy's SEVIS record was arbitrary and capricious and had to be set aside because the agency treated a dismissed misdemeanor charge as a failure to maintain F-1 status without a satisfactory explanation or support in the record.

Questions Presented

1. Whether ICE's restoration of Bushireddy's SEVIS record and assurances that it would not re-terminate the record based on the dismissed shoplifting charge rendered the APA action moot.
2. Whether the Privacy Act precluded Bushireddy, an Indian national who was neither a U.S. citizen nor a lawful permanent resident, from pursuing APA relief.
3. Whether ICE's termination of a student's SEVIS record constituted final agency action reviewable under the APA.
4. Whether ICE's termination of Bushireddy's SEVIS record based on a dismissed misdemeanor charge was arbitrary and capricious under 5 U.S.C. § 706(2).

Disposition

other