A federal appeals court has shut the door on a man’s 20-year quest to reopen his stepdaughter’s visa case, ruling that he essentially sabotaged his own lawsuit by hiding his own address.
In a decision released last Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s judgment against Mohamed Muthana. The ruling ends a legal battle that centered on whether the government sent critical immigration notices to the wrong house in 2002.
Muthana, a native of Yemen who became a U.S. citizen in 2001, filed visa petitions for his wife and children shortly after naturalizing. While most of his family eventually secured visas, the petition for his stepdaughter, Halimah, was denied in 2003.
For years, Muthana claimed he never received the “intent to deny” letter or the final denial notice. He sued the Department of Homeland Security in 2022, alleging the government violated his due process rights by mailing the documents to 4737 N. Kildare Avenue in Chicago—an address where he claimed he never lived. He maintained he actually resided on N. Kilbourn Street at the time.
READ: Pennsylvania And New Mexico Senate Dems Help Advance Markwayne Mullin For DHS Secretary
The case took a sharp turn when government lawyers noticed a major red flag: when Muthana filed his lawsuit, he attached his original 2002 visa petition as evidence but had blacked out the section where he listed his home address.
“The redaction was odd because Muthana’s claims rested entirely on his allegation that the INS had made an address error,” wrote Chief Judge Diane S. Sykes.
When the government produced the original, unredacted document, the mystery was solved. The paperwork showed that Muthana himself had written the Kildare Avenue address on the form. Because the government is only required to send notices to the last address provided by an applicant, the court found the agency had fulfilled its legal duty.
The legal trouble for Muthana deepened when his attorney failed to show up for a key district court hearing. Furthermore, when faced with the unredacted document proving he had provided the Kildare address, Muthana’s legal team offered what the court described as “perfunctory” and “confusing” arguments.
In one instance, Muthana submitted a photograph of a document he claimed proved his residency at the Kilbourn address in 2002. However, government officials pointed out the document was actually a page from Muthana’s own 1999 citizenship application—predating the visa petition by years.
READ: Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, And Ohio Falter On Trump Amid Iran Conflict, Energy Prices
The three-judge panel was not persuaded by Muthana’s appeal, noting that he failed to explain why he redacted the address or how the government could be at fault for using the information he provided.
The court ruled that by failing to provide a meaningful response to the evidence in the lower court, Muthana had “doubly waived” his right to challenge the judgment.
“The unredacted I-130 petition conclusively refuted the factual basis of Muthana’s claims,” Sykes wrote, affirming the dismissal of the case.
The decision means the 2003 denial of Halimah’s visa remains in place. Markwayne Mullin, the Secretary of Homeland Security, was the named defendant in the case.
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox
