On Friday, a CA3 panel struck down an immigration regulation as arbitrary and capricious and in violation of the APA, reversing the district court’s determination that the case was not ripe because the agency had not ruled on the issue yet.

The regulation at issue governs temporary work visas for unskilled workers, and the thrust of the challenge was that the regulation allowed companies to bring foreign workers into the country at artificially low wages. CA3 held that the case was ripe, even though the agency was reviewing the challenged rule, because the agency already is enforcing the rule. The court then reached the merits rather than remanding to give the district court the first crack.

The case is Comite De Apoyo A Los Trabajadores Agricolas v. Perez. Opinion by Greenberg, joined by Fuentes and Cowen. Arguing counsel were Edward Tuddenham for the challengers and Geoffrey Forney for the government.

I’m no administrative-law expert, but I suspect this interesting case is a decent candidate for cert even though the panel distinguished rather than disagreed with sister-circuit cases.