Mandamus decisions / Southern District of Illinois

Saleh v. Tillerson

Southern District of IllinoisEngelmayerDecided February 26, 2018

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What the decision decided

Each value cites the passage it was read from. Values read by a model were checked against that passage; values read by rule come from fixed text patterns. Read the decision before relying on either.

Agency	Department of State Read by a model The petition sought to compel the State Department to issue Saleh her immigration visa and to issue one of Saleh's sons, Zakaria Alshaif, his U.S. passport.
Form or filing	221(g) (consular refusal); DS-260 (immigrant visa) Read by a model Petitioners allege that the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti in 2015 approved with finality Saleh's immigrant visa, Am. Pet. ¶ 20, only to deny it after she brought this action, id. ¶ 27 .
What the suit asked for	Not recorded Read by a model
Kind of order	A ruling on a motion or the petition Read by a model Because the doctrine of consular non-reviewability bars review, the Court dismisses the petition.
Motion decided	Motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction; Motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim Read by a model The Government seeks dismissal of the Amended Petition for lack of jurisdiction, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), and for failure to state a claim, under Rule 12(b)(6).
Whose motion	The government's motion Read by a model On July 10, 2017, the Government filed a motion to dismiss, Dkt. 26
Disposition	Dismissed The case or every delay claim was dismissed for a reason other than mootness. Read by a model For the foregoing reasons, the Government's motion to dismiss is granted, without prejudice.
Prevailing party	Government Read by a model For the foregoing reasons, the Government's motion to dismiss is granted, without prejudice.
The other claims	Dismissed Read by a model Because the doctrine of consular non-reviewability bars review, the Court dismisses the petition.
Months pending	17.3 months from the application to the agency's action Read by a model The Government attached the Refusal Worksheet, dated April 26, 2017, in which the Government had informed Saleh that her visa application had been denied.
TRAC factors	The court did not weigh the TRAC factors Read by a model
Threshold rulings	Consular nonreviewability applied Read by a model Because the doctrine of consular non-reviewability bars review, the Court dismisses the petition.
Nationality	Yemen Read by a model Saleh is a Yemeni citizen and homemaker.
I-130 category	Immediate relative Read by a model In 2006, Saleh's *422 husband, Sultan Naji Alshaif, a U.S. Citizen, submitted a Form I-130 petition to the State Department, seeking a visa on behalf of Saleh.

How the case ended

This decision is not linked to a docket in the docket record yet, so how the case ended is not shown.

Supreme Court and Seventh Circuit authority

District decisions bind no one. On the questions this decision raises, the Supreme Court decisions and the circuit's published decisions listed here bind this court; a circuit disposition marked nonprecedential was not published as precedent and is persuasive only. ImmCite status as read November 14, 2026. Check the current status before relying on one.

Department of State v. Muñoz, 602 U.S. 899

Supreme Court, June 21, 2024. A U.S. citizen has no fundamental liberty interest in a noncitizen spouse's admission, so marriage alone entitles the citizen neither to Mandel review of the consular refusal nor to an explanation beyond the statutory citation.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. 667

Supreme Court, June 26, 2018. Mandel's facially-legitimate-and-bona-fide standard governs constitutional challenges to entry restrictions, and a citation to a valid statutory ground ordinarily satisfies it.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Kleindienst v. Mandel, 408 U.S. 753

Supreme Court, June 29, 1972. When a visa refusal burdens a U.S. citizen's own constitutional rights, courts ask only whether the Executive gave a facially legitimate and bona fide reason and do not look behind it.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Norton v. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, 542 U.S. 55

Supreme Court, June 14, 2004. Section 706(1) and mandamus reach only a discrete agency action that the agency is legally required to take, so a court cannot compel programmatic improvements or action the law leaves to agency discretion.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Pak v. Biden, 91 F.4th 896

Seventh Circuit, January 31, 2024. Consular nonreviewability bars a systemic challenge to how terrorism-related inadmissibility exemptions are considered, a matter the statute commits to the Secretaries' sole unreviewable discretion, and a statutory citation with a facial link to the record satisfies Mandel.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance. ImmCite has read all 2 published decisions citing this case, as of 2026-11-13; none treats it adversely. That describes those decisions; it is not a determination that the case is good law.
Matushkina v. Nielsen, 877 F.3d 289

Seventh Circuit, December 7, 2017. Consular nonreviewability is a merits rule rather than a limit on subject-matter jurisdiction, and it bars indirect attacks on a visa refusal through the underlying inadmissibility finding.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance. ImmCite has read all 11 published decisions citing this case, as of 2026-11-13; none treats it adversely. That describes those decisions; it is not a determination that the case is good law.
Yafai v. Pompeo, 912 F.3d 1018

Seventh Circuit, January 4, 2019. A visa refusal citing a statutory inadmissibility ground supported by facts in the record is facially legitimate and bona fide, and bad faith must be affirmatively shown before a court looks further.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance. ImmCite has read all 8 published decisions citing this case, as of 2026-11-13; none treats it adversely. That describes those decisions; it is not a determination that the case is good law.
Iddir v. INS, 301 F.3d 492

Seventh Circuit, August 6, 2002. INS had a nondiscretionary duty to adjudicate diversity-visa applications and § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii) does not bar review of a failure to act, but no relief is available once the fiscal year ends.

ImmCite: caution, adverse or limiting treatment found. Questioned by Akash Shahi v. United States Department of S, 33 F.4th 927 (2022).
Calderon-Ramirez v. McCament, 877 F.3d 272

Seventh Circuit, December 5, 2017. USCIS must process U-visa petitions within a reasonable time, but neither mandamus nor the APA offers relief to an applicant who shows nothing setting him apart from those ahead of him in the oldest-first queue.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance. ImmCite has read all 3 published decisions citing this case, as of 2026-11-13; none treats it adversely. That describes those decisions; it is not a determination that the case is good law.
Shahi v. United States Department of State, 33 F.4th 927

Seventh Circuit, May 6, 2022. Courts cannot order a diversity visa issued after the fiscal year ends whatever relief is requested, because the statute ends eligibility, and the Mandamus Act supplies a remedy rather than jurisdiction.

ImmCite: unchecked, treatment not confirmed yet, not evidence either way. ImmCite has found no published decision citing this case as of 2026-10-29; it checks for new citing decisions daily. That is not a determination that the case is good law. The citation index lists 10 other decisions citing it, none a Supreme Court, BIA or Attorney General precedent or a published circuit opinion; ImmCite's status does not review them.