Muthana, a U.S. citizen since 2001, filed I-130 visa petitions in 2002 for family members including his stepdaughter Halimah. When the INS sent notices of intent to deny the petitions to 4737 N. Kildare Avenue in Chicago and received no response, the petitions were denied in 2003.
Twenty years later, Muthana sued claiming he never lived at that address and the notices should have been sent to 4858 N. Kilbourn Street. However, he suspiciously redacted the address portion of his I-130 petition when attaching it to his complaint as evidence.
The case unraveled when defendants submitted an unredacted copy of Muthana's original I-130 petition showing he had indeed listed 4737 N. Kildare Avenue as his address. Despite this decisive evidence, Muthana filed only a 'superficial response' that failed to address the contradiction, and his attorney did not appear at a scheduled hearing.
The Seventh Circuit found that Muthana had 'doubly waived' any challenge by failing to offer meaningful arguments in either the district court or on appeal. The court noted his 'perfunctory appellate brief' did not address the dispositive effect of the unredacted petition.