In Kakar v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit considered whether the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) properly denied an Afghan national lawful permanent residence status for allegedly engaging in terrorist activity, where he had been abducted by the Taliban and forced to take up arms to fight against his will. 29 F.4th 129 (2d Cir. 2022).

In a unanimous decision authored by Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier, with Circuit Judges John Walker and Guido Calabresi concurring, the Second Circuit reversed, taking issue with the lack of reasoning in the USCIS’s decision, and focusing on the court’s inability to discern whether the USCIS had considered all of the necessary factors in denying Mr. Kakar’s application. The Second Circuit held the USCIS’s decision was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and vacated the district court’s affirmance.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]