Judge Dora Irizarry
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved U.S. citizen Morales’ visa petition on fiancee Chang’s behalf. At Chang’s interview at a consulate in China, he was not permitted to speak or present evidence. Consular officers did not look at Chang’s documents detailing her relationship with Morales. She was denied a visa for failure to show a "bona fide relationship" with him. The court dismissed, for lack of jurisdiction, Morales’ claims that the denial was arbitrary, and that he was deprived of First Amendment and Equal Protection rights by not being allowed to participate in Chang’s interview. The doctrine of consular non-reviewability bars action by aliens, or their U.S. sponsors, challenging a consular official’s denial of a visa. Morales did not assert a viable constitutional claim of exemption from the doctrine. Distinguishing Am. Acad. of Religion v. Chertoff and Kleindienst v. Mandel, the court rejected Morales’ claim that his First Amendment rights were breached by denied participation at Chang’s interview. Morales brought his First Amendment claim so he could speak to consular officers in China about his relationship with Chang, not because she was denied the opportunity to share her views with the U.S. public.
