ELR Citation: 52 ELR 20095
No(s). 1:20-cv-3438 (TNM) (D.D.C. Aug 11, 2022) (McFadden, J.)

A district court granted in part and denied in part federal agencies' motion to dismiss a NEPA challenge to the Biden Administration's immigration actions. A coalition seeking immigration reform argued that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of State, and DOJ failed to follow their respective NEPA procedures by neglecting to perform an EA or an EIS before making or changing immigration policies. The agencies moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. The court found that it had jurisdiction to hear all but two of plaintiffs' claims: that DHS' instruction manual violated NEPA and that the agencies should have prepared a programmatic EIS for the immigration-related actions. It determined that DHS' instruction manual did not qualify as "final agency action" because it neither created new obligations nor had legal consequences, and that the challenged "program" was not a "discrete" agency action but rather a collection of numerous agency actions that plaintiffs were challenging individually. It dismissed those claims as unreviewable under the APA, and denied the agencies' motion in all other respects.