Mandamus decisions / Eastern District of North Carolina

Abu Shamla v. Alfonso-Royals

Eastern District of North CarolinaJames C. Dever, IIIDecided July 7, 2025No. 7:25-cv-01136

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2,996 written decisions from 2,731 cases in the whole mandamus and agency-delay group, the group's newest decided November 12, 2026. Updated November 14, 2026 at 1:17 a.m. CT; the Passim connector counts the live collection, which can differ by the day's additions and retirements (which total to quote). Coverage: of the 1,617 public decisions since January 1, 2025 that a CourtListener and GovInfo search for mandamus and agency delay finds, Passim holds 1,406 (87%), 1,039 of them in this group, measured November 14, 2026. Some of what that search finds are not mandamus decisions. Tell us about a decision we're missing.

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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	USCIS Read by a model Angelica Alfonso-Royals, Acting Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”); and the Director of USCIS, Texas Service Center to adjudicate his I-485 application without delay, and also asks the court to award legal fees and costs.
Form or filing	I-485 (adjustment of status) Read by a model He was granted asylum on May 30, 2024, and filed an application to adjust his status seeking permanent residency (Form I-485) on January 16, 2025.
What the suit asked for	Decide the application Read by a model to adjudicate his I-485 application without delay
Kind of order	A magistrate judge's recommendation Read by a model IT IS DIRECTED that a copy of this Memorandum and Recommendation be served on Defendant.
Motion decided	None Read by a model
Whose motion	The court on its own Read by a model This matter is before the court on Plaintiff’s application to proceed in forma pauperis and for frivolity review pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B).
Disposition	Magistrate judge's recommendation A magistrate judge's report and recommendation. The district judge decides whether to adopt it, so it is not counted as either side's win. Read by a model IT IS DIRECTED that a copy of this Memorandum and Recommendation be served on Defendant.
Prevailing party	Neither side Read by a model IT IS DIRECTED that a copy of this Memorandum and Recommendation be served on Defendant.
The delay claim	Dismissed Read by a model Accordingly, it is recommended that Plaintiff’s complaint be dismissed.
Months pending	5.7 months from the application to the court's decision Read by a model filed an application to adjust his status seeking permanent residency (Form I-485) on January 16, 2025.
TRAC factors	The court did not weigh the TRAC factors Read by a model
Threshold rulings	Section 1252(a)(2)(B) bar applied Read by a model Likewise, here, because the pace of action on Plaintiff’s I-485 application is considered a discretionary decision, judicial review, and in turn mandamus relief, are unavailable.
Nationality	Palestine Read by a model Plaintiff, a native Palestinian, was born in the West Bank in 1982

How the case ended

Docket: No. 7:25-cv-01136
On the docket: This ruling (ECF 7)
Filed: June 13, 2025
Ended: July 21, 2025
Suit's filing to its end: 38 days
How it ended: Dismissed, ground not recorded
From the record: idb disp 14 (dismissed: other)

A voluntary or stipulated dismissal is how most suits end once the agency acts; the docket rarely says why. Other suits in this court.

The ruling's entry is the docket's one order or judgment entered the day of the decision. Both come from CourtListener's copy of the docket; check them there.

Supreme Court and Fourth 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.

Kucana v. Holder, 558 U.S. 233

Supreme Court, January 20, 2010. Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii) bars review only of decisions whose discretionary character is specified by statute, not discretion the agency gives itself by regulation.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Patel v. Garland, 596 U.S. 328

Supreme Court, May 16, 2022. Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(i) bars review of any judgment regarding the granting of the listed forms of relief, including the factual findings on which a denial of adjustment rests.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance
Bouarfa v. Mayorkas, 604 U.S. 6

Supreme Court, December 10, 2024. Revoking an approved visa petition under § 1155 is a discretionary decision or action that § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii) places beyond judicial review.

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
Gonzalez v. Cuccinelli, 985 F.3d 357

Fourth Circuit, January 14, 2021. Courts may review delay in placing U-visa petitioners on the waitlist under the TRAC factors and should not dismiss such claims at the pleading stage, but lack jurisdiction over delay in pre-waitlist work-permit requests, a point on which the Sixth Circuit disagrees.

ImmCite: caution, adverse or limiting treatment found. Rejected in the Sixth Circuit by Barrios Garcia v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 25 F.4th 430 (2022).
Lovo v. Miller, 107 F.4th 199

Fourth Circuit, July 3, 2024. The 'decision or action' language of § 1182(a)(9)(B)(v), which the court treated as coextensive with § 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii), does not reach USCIS inaction, so a district court may hear a claim that USCIS unreasonably delayed a provisional unlawful-presence waiver.

ImmCite: treatment available, history exists, not clearance. ImmCite has read all 5 published decisions citing this case, as of 2026-11-07; none treats it adversely. That describes those decisions; it is not a determination that the case is good law.
Kale v. Alfonso-Royals, 139 F.4th 329

Fourth Circuit, June 3, 2025. Section 1252(a)(2)(B)(ii), read with § 1255(a), bars review of USCIS's adjudication hold policy for adjustment applications affected by visa retrogression, joining the Third, Fifth, Eighth and Eleventh Circuits.

ImmCite: unchecked, treatment not confirmed yet, not evidence either way. ImmCite has found no published decision citing this case as of 2026-11-09; it checks for new citing decisions daily. That is not a determination that the case is good law. The citation index lists 34 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.