# Czarniak v. Medina

> District Court, N.D. Illinois · November 9, 2018

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/10139704

## Case

- **Court:** District Court, N.D. Illinois
- **Decided:** November 9, 2018
- **Opinion:** 100trialcourt
- **Cited by:** 0 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

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## Opinion text

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

JANUSZ CZARNIAK )
)
Plaintiff, )
) Case No. 18-cv-534
v. )
) Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman
KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, Secretary )
Department. of Homeland Security; )
MARTHA MEDINA, Field Office )
Director, Chicago Field Office, )
United States Citizenship & )
Immigration Services, )
)
Defendants. )

ORDER
Plaintiff Janusz Czarniak filed this action against Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security and Martha Medina, the Chicago Field Office Director of United
States Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) (collectively defendants). Czarniak seeks
declaratory judgment under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and asks the Court to set aside USCIS’ decision to
deny Czarniak’s application to become a lawful permanent resident. Currently before the Court is
the defendants’ motion to dismiss Czarniak’s complaint pursuant to Federal Rule Civil Procedure
12(b)(6). For the reasons explained below, the defendants’ motion to dismiss Czarniak’s complaint
[9] is granted.
Background
The following facts are taken from Czarniak’s interview with USCIS and are undisputed
unless otherwise noted. Czarniak is a native and citizen of Poland. While in Poland, a “travel
organizer” informed Czarniak of the possibility to travel to the United States by ship. In January
1992, Czarniak paid the organizer $6,000 to coordinate the travel to Chicago, Illinois in the United
States. Czarniak was driven to Germany to board a cargo ship. Prior to boarding the ship, Czarniak
was joined by five other people he did not know who arrived in a different car who were also
traveling to the United States. After an individual stamped his passport, Czarniak and his roommate
were shown to a room where they were locked in and told they could not leave until someone
arrived to get them.
During the ship’s first stop in France, Czarniak and his roommate hid in a closet while the
customs agent checked the ship. Czarniak had contact with the ship’s captain when he got sick on

board. The captain examined Czarniak’s passport. Czarniak states the captain did not further
question him. Once the ship arrived in Canada, Czarniak hid in the ceiling once the customs agents
were aboard the ship. After the ship arrived in New York City, Czarniak was instructed to wait for a
pass to leave the ship. The man who gave Czarniak a pass to leave the ship led him to a car which
drove him from New York to Chicago.
On February 3, 2001, Czarniak married a United States citizen who filed an I-130 visa
petition on his behalf, which was approved on August 1, 2001. On April 8, 2003, Czarniak applied
for lawful permanent resident (“LPR”) status. On October 26, 2004, Czarniak interviewed with
USCIS pertaining to his Adjustment of Status application. USCIS denied Czarniak’s application on
January 20, 2005 finding that he was a “stowaway1” and therefore ineligible for LPR status. On May
16, 2017, Czarniak filed a second application for LPR status. On October 23, 2017, USCIS again
denied Czarniak’s application. Czarniak requests that the Court makes a finding that he is not a
stowaway and seeks to set aside USCIS’ denial of his application to adjust his status to LPR. The

defendants’ have moved to dismiss Czarniak’s complaint.

1 While the Court is not fond of the use of the term “stowaway” to describe a group of alien immigrants, the Court uses
the term provided by statute. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(49).
Legal Standard
A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) challenges the sufficiency of the complaint, not its
merits. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6); Gibson v. City of Chicago, 910 F.2d 1510, 1520 (7th Cir. 1990). When
considering the motion, the Court accepts as true all well pleaded facts in the plaintiff’s complaint
and draws all reasonable inferences from those facts in the plaintiff’s favor. AnchorBank, FSB v.
Hofer, 649 F.3d 610, 614 (7th Cir. 2011). To survive a motion to dismiss, the complaint must not

only provide the defendant with fair notice of a claim’s basis, but must also be facially plausible.
Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S. Ct. 1937, 173 L. Ed. 2d 868 (2009); see also Bell Atl. Corp. v.
Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L. Ed. 2d 929 (2007). “A claim has facial plausibility
when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that
the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678
Discussion
A. Immigration Law as to Admissibility
The burden is on the alien applicant to demonstrate “his eligibility for citizenship in every
respect.” I.N.S. v. Pangilinan, 486 U.S. 875, 886, 100 L. Ed. 2d 82, 108 S. Ct. 2210, 2217-2218 (1988)
(quoting Berenyi v. District Director, INS, 385 U.S. 630, 637, 17 L. Ed. 2d 656, 87 S. Ct. 666, 670-671
(1967)). “[N]o person shall be naturalized unless he has been lawfully admitted to the United States
for permanent residence.” 8 U.S.C. § 1429. To be lawfully admitted for permanent residence, the
alien must have “the status of having been lawfully accorded the privilege of residing permanently in

the United States as an immigrant in accordance with the immigration laws. . . .” 8 U.S.C.
§ 1101(a)(20); Bonifon v. Rodriguez, 270 F. Supp. 3d 465, 469 (D. Mass. 2017).
Under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i), an alien is inadmissible if he or she is “present in the
United States without being admitted or paroled, or . . . arrives in the United States at any other time
or place other than as designated by the Attorney General.” 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). An
exception to this rule is section 1255(i) which is provided “for ‘certain grandfathered aliens’ who
would otherwise be ineligible to adjust status because they entered without inspection or are
otherwise precluded from availing themselves of the more common form of adjustment of status.”
Akwasi Agyei v. Holder, 729 F.3d 6, 9 (1st Cir. 2013) (citation omitted). Nevertheless, the section
1255(i) exception does not apply to stowaways. Bonifon, 270 F. Supp. at 470 (stating that in light of
section 1255(i), “there is no comparable exception for stowaways”). Other district courts have held

that “stowaways are a particularly disfavored category of aliens” and have distinguished stowaways
from entitlements afforded to other aliens. Linea Area Nacional de Chile S.A. v. Sale, 865 F. Supp. 971,
980 (E.D.N.Y. 1994).
B. Application
In this case, defendants argue that Czarniak’s complaint should be dismissed for failure to
state a claim. In support, defendants assert that USCIS was correct to deny Czarniak’s application (1)
because he arrived to the United States as a stowaway and therefore is ineligible for LPR status and
(2) because the exception to the “entry doctrine” under section 1255(i) does not apply.
“The term ‘stowaway’ [is defined as] any alien who obtains transportation without the
consent of the owner, charterer, master or person in command of any vessel or aircraft through
concealment aboard such vessel or aircraft.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(49). “A passenger who boards with a
valid ticket is not to be considered a stowaway.” Id. Defendants argue that Czarniak is a stowaway
for several reasons including the fact that he was locked in a room, did not have a ticket or proof of

purchase, and had to hide repeatedly to avoid discovery.
In response, Czarniak contends that because he was not officially restrained, he did not
arrive as a stowaway. Specifically, Czarniak points to the captain’s inaction after discovering his
presence on the ship, despite the requirement for captains to detain alien stowaways.
The parties have not provided, and the Court has not found, any recent Seventh Circuit
cases that address this issue. However, other district courts have analyzed several factors regarding
aliens who arrive without inspection. In Bonifon v. Rodriguez, the court granted summary judgment
against a plaintiff who brought a declaratory action against USCIS for denying his application for
LPR status. The court held that Bonifon, a passenger who boarded a ship from the Ivory Coast to
Florida and impersonated crewmembers, was a stowaway (and therefore ineligible for LPR status)

because he “did not have permission to be on the ship and . . . obtained free passage by the means
of deception.” 270 F. Supp. 3d at 470. While the plaintiff in Bonifon argued that the stowaway
designation was inapplicable because he did not physically conceal himself and even pretended to be
a crewmember, the court held that concealment was not limited to physically hiding. Id. at 471
(“Obfuscating the truth also constitutes concealment”). The court also noted that the plaintiff did
not obtain permission to be on the ship and did not possess a valid ticket. Id. at 467.
In this case, the stowaway analysis is fairly straightforward. In his interview with USCIS,
Czarniak stated that he boarded the ship without buying a ticket which transported him from
Germany to the United States. Czarniak also told USCIS that the captain did not become aware of
his presence until he became sick. Further, Czarniak asserted that he was locked in a room and could
not leave until someone opened the door. Czarniak even hid in a closet at one stop and in the ceiling
at another stop to go undetected by customs agents. It is clear from complaint and attached
statements that Czarniak arrived without the consent of the person in charge of the boat. See §

1101(a)(49).
Czarniak argues that because the captain did not detain him after learning of his presence on
the ship and only asked for his passport, he did not arrive in the United States as a stowaway. Yet
Czarniak provides no legal authority for this argument. The fact that Czarniak was presented to the
captain when he became ill does not change the analysis. The vital question is not whether he
possessed a passport, but rather did Czarniak purchase a ticket to board the ship. See 8 U.S.C.
§ 1101(a)(49) (“A passenger who boards with a valid ticket 1s not to be considered a stowaway’’).
Czarniak’s pleadings coupled with the statements he made to USCIS demonstrate that the answer to
that question 1s no. See U.S. ex rel. Candreva v. Smith, 27 F.2d 642, 644 (7th Cir. 1928) (holding that an
alien arrived as a stowaway even though he paid workers $150 to transport him because “what they
received from him was not to pay for the passage, which they had nol] right to contract for, but by
some unexplained artifice to keep his presence on the ship unknown to the responsible officers’).
Even construing all the facts in a light most favorable to Czarniak, as the Court must do at
the pleading stage, the pleadings demonstrate that he arrived as a stowaway~. Accordingly, because
stowaways are not eligible for LPR status, Czarniak’s complaint fails to state a claim upon which
relief can be granted. Therefore, the defendants’ motion to dismiss is granted.
As the Court finds that Czarniak arrived as a stowaway, the Court need not address the
parties’ arguments regarding Czarmak’s admissibility under the entry doctrine.
Conclusion
Based on the foregoing discussion, the defendants’ motion to dismiss Czarniak’s complaint
[9] is granted.

TY ISSO ORDERED.
Date: 11/9/2018
Entered: /
SHARON JOHNSON COLEMAN
United States District Judge

Despite the sympathetic circumstances of his case, Czarniak’s pleadings fit squarely with the statute’s clear
definition of stowaway.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/10139704. Public record. Not legal advice.