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710 F.3d 568 (2013)
Tom AMROLLAH, also known as Mohammad Hassan Amrollah-Majdabadi, Plaintiff-Appellant
v.
Janet NAPOLITANO, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security; Alejandro Mayorkas, Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services; Gerard Heinauer, Director of the Nebraska Service Center for Citizenship and Immigration Services; Robert Mueller, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Eric H. Holder, Jr., U.S. Attorney General, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 12-50357.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
March 4, 2013.
Lance Edward Curtright, De Mott McChesney Curtright & Armendariz, L.L.P., San Antonio, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Erik R. Quick, Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, Gary Layton Anderson, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas, San Antonio, TX, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before STEWART, Chief Judge, and DAVIS and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.
EDITH BROWN CLEMENT, Circuit Judge:
Tom
Amrollah fled Iran in 1998 for the United States with his wife and two children. After receiving a grant of asylum,
Amrollah and his family filed an application to obtain lawful permanent residence status with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS"). Ten years later, USCIS denied
Amrollah's application.
Amrollah filed suit in the Western District of Texas seeking relief under the Administrative Procedures Act ("APA") and the Declaratory Judgment Act. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment and the district court granted judgment in favor of the government. For the following reasons, we REVERSE.
FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
Tom
Amrollah (formerly known as Mohammad Hassan
Amrollah-Majdabadi) is a citizen and national of Iran. In 1979,
Amrollah was working as a pharmacist in Iran when he began providing medical assistance in the form of prescription medications and bandages to the mujahedeen movement.
Amrollah never formally joined the mujahedeen, but he was arrested for his support of the movement in 1982, and sentenced to a year in prison and 30 lashes. Upon his release from prison,
Amrollah continued to support the movement by providing prescriptions as well as money for printing pamphlets. In 1996,
Amrollah was arrested a second time and sentenced to six months in prison. He claims that this was the last time he provided any support to the mujahedeen movement.
Two years after his 1996 arrest,
Amrollah once again received a subpoena to appear before an Iranian religious court. In response,
Amrollah, his wife, and their two children decided to flee Iran for the United States, entering near Eagle Pass, Texas on July 8, 1998.
Amrollah admitted to entering the country illegally, but sought asylum on the basis of his persecution in Iran.
Amrollah acknowledged his support of the mujahedeen movement in his petition and in an asylum hearing before the Immigration Judge ("IJ"). The IJ granted
Amrollah and his family asylum, noting that he found
Amrollah to be generally credible and that "[a]lthough the Service attorney hints, or hinted that Respondent's support of the Mujahedeen indicated violent activity which might disqualify the Respondent from being eligible for asylum," the IJ "conclude[d] that Respondent's testimony showed he did not commit any violent act," and that he was therefore eligible for asylum under 8 U.S.C. § 1158. The government did not appeal this decision.
One year later,
Amrollah and his family applied for lawful permanent residence status. His children's applications were approved in 2004 and 2005, but
Amrollahand his wife's applications remained pending until 2009.
Amrollah filed his original complaint on December 1, 2009, seeking a writ of mandamus to compel agency action on his and his wife's applications. The government proceeded to grant
Amrollah's wife's application, but denied
Amrollah's application without a hearing, based on the support he had provided to the mujahedeen movement.
Amrollah filed an amended complaint, arguing that the government wrongly denied his application for permanent residence status and requesting relief under the APA, 5 U.S.C. §§ 704 and 706, and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201(a). The district court found that the agency's decision was supported by substantial evidence and that collateral estoppel did not bar USCIS from denying
Amrollah's application.
Amrollah timely appealed.
DISCUSSION
Amrollah received his grant of asylum in 1999 under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, which permits refugees to seek asylum when "race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion was or will be at least one central reason for persecuting the applicant." 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1)(B)(i). This statute also prohibits the government from granting asylum to aliens who participate in terrorist activity as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B)(i) or 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(B), including aliens who provide material support to any individual, organization, or government conducting terrorist activity.
Id. at § 1158(b)(2)(A)(v) (1999);
see also id. at § 1182(a)(3)(B)(iii)(III) (1999) (discussing the prohibition against material support).
An alien who has been granted asylum is eligible for an adjustment in status to that of permanent resident if, after being physically present in the United States for at least one year, he is otherwise "admissible... as an immigrant under this chapter at the time of examination for adjustment."
Id. at § 1159(a)(2)(b). Aliens who engage in terrorist activities, as defined under the same statute used in asylum proceedings, are not admissible.
See id. at § 1182(a)(3)(B)(i)(I). In other words, both 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (the statute governing petitions for asylum) and 8 U.S.C. § 1159 (the statute governing petitions for permanent resident status), look to 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (the statute governing inadmissible aliens) to determine whether an alien is eligible for relief.
CONCLUSION
We REVERSE the decision of the district court granting summary judgment to defendants, RENDER summary judgment for
Amrollah, and REMAND this case to the agency for proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
[1] The government contends that the mujahedeen movement is indistinguishable from Mojahedin-e-Khalq ("MeK"), a revolutionary Iranian organization. The United States Department of State designated MeK a Tier I Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997, but this designation was lifted on September 28, 2012, after multiple appeals from MeK that it had disarmed and been non-violent since at least 2003. The government argues that regardless of this de-designation, the mujahedeen movement qualified as a Tier III terrorist organization during the time that
Amrollah provided support. As discussed below, we need not reach this question.
[2] Although this statute was passed after
Amrollah filed his petition for permanent resident status, it is retroactive to "actions taken by an alien before, on, or after such date." Pub.L. No. 107-56, § 411(c)(1). Furthermore, 8 U.S.C. § 1159(b) looks to whether an alien is admissible "at the time of examination for adjustment" of status, which in this case was in 2010.
[3] Although it would not significantly alter the analysis, we note that the government does not argue, nor does the record support, that
Amrollah qualified for asylum because he did not know or have reason to believe that the organization he supported had committed or planned to commit a terrorist activity.
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