Mirmehdi, et al. v. United States, et al., No. 09-55846 (9th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs, four citizens of Iran who came to the United States at various times due to their long-standing opposition to that nation's theocratic regime, sued defendants, raising a number of claims including unlawful detention, inhumane conditions, witness intimidation, and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. The court declined to extend Bivens to allow plaintiffs to sue federal agents for wrongful detention pending deportation given the extensively remedial procedures available to and invoked by them and the unique foreign policy considerations implicated in the immigration context. The court rejected plaintiffs' argument regarding the dismissal of their claim against one agent for witness intimidation and against two agents for conspiracy to intimidate a witness because plaintiffs could not have been prejudiced by any alleged wrongdoing. The court also rejected plaintiffs' claims against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. 1346, because the decision to detain an alien pending resolution of immigration proceedings was explicitly committed to the discretion of the Attorney General and implicated issues of foreign policy, falling within an exception to the FTCA. The court affirmed the district court's denial of plaintiffs' motion to amend their complaint where plaintiffs' woes were not caused by insufficient allegations of factual content and no potential amendments would change the outcome. Accordingly, the judgment was affirmed.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on June 7, 2012.
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