*******Here is What Happened at the 3 June Hearing*****

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Summary:

1. The judge has decided not to rule on our class action motion. This is to be kept pending. (bad news ).

2. We have been given permission to ask the govt. questions and request documents etc. so we can figure out whether the delays are "unreasonable" (good news ).


I will give you more details. I have also requested a transcript of the hearing (it will take 30 days). I will post it for you all also.

Warmest regards to all.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Another view

GC_YEAHRIGHT! has just posted in the The Complaint forum of ImmigrationPortal Forums under the title of ****Hearing date rescheduled to June 3, 2004****.

This thread is located at http://www.ImmigrationPortal.com/showthread.php?threadid=124617

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
Hi ALL
Just got back from the Courtroom.
The hearing of the case was pre-poned from 4.45 to 4.15 so I missed all the initial stuff..
The basic summary is as follows:
As Rajiv put it "We got the things we NEED, maybe not all the things we WANT"
Class Certification. Judge has decided that he will rule on this matter after knowing all the facts, which will happen during the "discovery" phase, so for now its postponed.

Regular Case. Judge wanted both parties to meet and start the "discovery" phase. He laso has asked both parties for a "phone teleconference" between the judge, and counsel for both Plaintiffs and Defendants sometime within next 45 days or so (Rajiv has the exact details,)

My views on the proceedings: We seem to have a strong basis for our case. The USCIS lawyer seemed under pressure explaining his points to the judge (my opinion)...he was trying to say that the plaintiffs want their cases processed out of turn and this defeats USCIS's policy of FIFO..Blah..Blah...he was also trying to confuse the issue saying "I-485" means all sorts of cases like Asyleee etc etc, whereas our positions is that, we are only interested in "EMPLOYMENT BASED 1-485's. RAJIV vigorously defended our cause on this point and I think during Discovery phase the judge too will see through USICS fudging of facts.
Anyways all in all I was satisfied with todays outcome and I think the Judge did not wish to make too many rulings until he familiarizes himself with all the "FACTS", which I guess will happen during the "discovery" phase.

Please take above comments as my personal opinion/understanding of the "partial proceedings" that I witnessed and wait for Rajivs comments on this evening's Courtroom events.
All the best to US
***************

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Lot of time will be wasted

Just another thought; I'm sure Rajiv has thought of this, but just in case:

If the main issue is class certification; why don't we just file separate class action lawsuits for eb1, eb2, eb3, etc.

I know this is more work but I imagine this would help overcome the government's argument.

A lot of time will be wasted (we filed this case in December). But we can do that.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

I agree

Rajiv,
Thanks for your active role in leading this class action lawsuit. We really needed someone to help us and the next wave of immigrants. This land has been developed by immigrants. Unfortunately, the current administration is not realizing this and worse, they have forgotten their campaign promises of improving the immigration processes. I just hope that they wake up from their slumber and act rather than just "thunder"!

I wish things could be improved without us all having to go through the courts. But, if this is what it will take, we will try this route. What else can be done.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Yes we could do something like this

Rajiv,

Is it possible for us to add plaintiffs to the case at this point ? Here's the reason why I'm asking :

Between the members on this board and their contacts, I am sure we can come up with thousands of "legally equivalent" cases. If we petition to add say 50 or 100 plaintiffs to the case, wont the judge be forced to reconsider his stand on giving this case a class action status.

Even if we cannot change the number of plaintiffs on this one case, can we file another case with an excessively large number of petitioners and show this new case as evidence ?

I am sure there are a million legal facets to this approach which I cannot even begin to comprehend, but I feel that without class action certification the entire struggle would prove to be fruitless.

regards
-BacklogBlues

Give me a couple of months. Let me see where this case goes.

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

Nothing yet

Any update on the telecon with INS and the judge?

Here is my email to the Govt. lawyers this morning:

"Were you able to call the Court, Bill?
We need to get moving with the discovery. If you do not have time, I will call the court tomorrow morning and have them set something up for all of us. Regards."

 

[Rajiv S. Khanna]

EAD Situation will improve

The buzz from the govt. is they are coming out with a regulation extending EAD beyond a year.