OPINION & ORDER Pro se Petitioner Jorge A. Torres, Jr. (“Petitioner”) filed the instant Petition for a Writ of Mandamus (the “Petition”), pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1361 (the “Mandamus Act”), against the United States Department of State (“Respondent,” or the “Department”) seeking relief from alleged religious persecution related to Petitioner’s passport application. (See generally Pet. (Dkt. No. 2).) Before the Court is Respondent’s Motion To Dismiss the Petition pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8, 12(b)(1), and 12(b)(6) (the “Motion”). (See Not. of Mot. (Dkt. No. 19).) For the following reasons, the Motion is granted. I. Background A. Factual Background On September 20, 2018, Petitioner was married in Massachusetts. (Pet. 2.) For “religious reasons,” Petitioner changed his last name to “Bar-Levy” under Massachusetts law. (Id.) Petitioner alleges that on the same day as his marriage, he updated his Social Security record and card to include his new last name, and was also issued a New York State “[e]nhanced [d]rivers [license]…without complications.” (Id. 3.) On September 25, 2018, Petitioner applied for an updated passport that included his new last name at the “Department of State Passport Agency” (the “Agency”) in Connecticut. (Id. 4.) According to Petitioner, he needed a new passport because he was traveling to Israel that day for “religious reasons”; thus, he paid a fee to expedite the service and gave his old passport to the Agency. (Id.) However, Petitioner was then “ridicule[d] in front of everyone,” and was interrogated about his new last name and “his religious intentions.” (Id.) When Petitioner informed the Agency that he changed his last name as a result of his marriage, his documents were “seized [unlawfully],” he was unable to travel abroad that day, and he was told that his passport application was under investigation because the Department “wanted to investigate[] why [P]etitioner adopted the Hebrew [r]eligious [l]ast [n]ame Bar-Levy.” (Id.) According to Petitioner, he incurred financial loss and his travel plans were delayed as a result. (Id.) Petitioner seeks a writ of mandamus compelling Respondent to issue Petitioner’s passport and “any other order or relief [Petitioner] may be entitled to.” (Id. at 4-5.)1 Petitioner also seeks a writ of mandamus “compelling [Respondent] to cease its unconstitutional and [illegal] activities against [P]etitioner and order[ing] [Respondent] to cease all [u]nconstitutional religious persecution against [P]etitioner” and asks that the Court “certify that the United States Government has[,] since 2010[,] persecuted [P]etitioner and his family.” (Id. at 4.) Finally, Petitioner asks the Court to “allow [P]etitioner to apply for asylum in the State of Israel or any third state based on…religious and ethnic persecution.” (Id.) B. Petitioner’s Litigation History Petitioner alleges that he has been “unla[w]fully persecuted and discriminated” against by Respondent for “over seven years” because he is an “Orthodox Jew of Sephardic heritage.” (Id. 1.) Petitioner states that on several occasions, Respondent has interfered with passport applications filed for Petitioner or on behalf of his “minor and adult children” by “delay[ing], den[ying,] or plac[ing] [the application] under investigation for no lawful[] reason[] other than a malicious persecution.” (Id.) Petitioner cites to two other lawsuits he has filed in the Southern District of New York against Respondent related to previous passport applications. (Id.)2 First, on June 20, 2012, Petitioner filed a petition for a writ of mandamus against Respondent and the United States Embassy in San Salvador (the “Embassy”) before Judge Castel in the Southern District of New York. (See Pet. (“June 20, 2012 Pet.”) (Dkt. No. 2, Case No. 12- CV-4885).) Petitioner alleged that after he had been extradited and served a prison sentence in the United States, he tried to obtain United States passports for four of his children, who were located in El Salvador. (See id.
