Case of the Day: Hong Kong Entm't (Overseas) Invs. Ltd. v. US CIS, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163956 (D.N.M.I. Oct. 1, 2017)

Summary:

Plaintiff is a casino operator in Northern Mariana Islands who petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service for a permit to hire foreign workers. The USCIS denied the petition, primarily on the grounds that the plaintiff engages in prostitution. Plaintiff filed a case challenging the administrative denial.

The court dismissed for lack of standing. As a threshold matter, because Congress mandated the gradual reduction of foreign transitional workers, the plaintiff could no longer hire the types of workers it sought to hire even if it prevailed. The court also found that the reputational harm arising from the decision was not actionable.

Takeaway:

DNMI! How often do you see that at the end of the citation? Usually Asia is in the U.S. courts because Asia is coming to the United States, but sometimes, the United States comes to Asia in the form of U.S.'s Asian territories.