US govt to oppose Guanlao request for stay of dismissal of lawsuit

The U.S. government will oppose Amalia Abo Guanlao’s motion for a stay pending appeal of U.S. District Court for the NMI designated Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood’s order that dismissed her petition that seeks to appeal the immigration removal order against her.

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Immigration trial attorney Adrienne Zack has informed the District Court that the U.S. government will file their opposition to Guanlao’s motion by Monday, July 23.

Guanlao is a Filipino mother of two minor U.S. children who has been fighting against a 2013 immigration court’s order of her removal from the U.S.

In opposition to the U.S. government’s motion to dissolve the stay of Guanlao’s removal that U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona entered in June 2016, Guanlao moved for a stay of Tydingco-Gatewood’s dismissal order of June 19, 2018.

Zack said in so moving, Guanlao, through counsel implicitly acknowledges that Tydingco-Gatewood’s dismissal order dissolved Manglona’s stay of removal.

“If the June 2016 stay of removal remained in place, there would be no need to stay the 2018 order pending an appeal,” Zack said.

Therefore, Zack said, the U.S. government requests the court to enter an order expressly dissolving the stay of removal entered in June 2016.

Guanlao, through counsel Rosemond B. Santos, has asserted that whatever the decision the District Court reached in her case will be an important ruling on a question affecting nonresident worker’s due process rights.

Santos said Guanlao’s case presents a unique challenge between clear violations of due process and the immigration administrative process requirements.

Guanlao is appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that seeks to reverse the District Court’s ruling that dismissed her petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition seeks to appeal the immigration’s removal order.

Santos is moving the District Court to grant Guanlao’s motion for stay of the ordered dismissal of her petition and the lifting of the stay of removal, pending an appeal of the final order to the Ninth Circuit.

Guanlao first moved to Saipan in April 1994 and has consistently remained in the CNMI for the past 24 years.

Guanlao married her husband (also a nonresident worker) in December 2000. Together they have children, ages 12 and 15 years old, who are both born in the CNMI and are U.S. citizens.

Tydingco-Gatewood dismissed last June 19 Guanlao’s petition.

On June 23, 2016, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Manglona issued a stay of Guanlao’s removal from the U.S.

Following Tydingco-Gatewood’s dismissal order, the U.S. government, through Zack, moved the District Court to formally lift the stay of removal because this case has been resolved.

According to court records, on Sept. 10, 2013, an immigration judge found that Guanlao was removable as an alien present without a valid immigrant visa or entry document and ordered her removed to the Philippines.