Current law permits a showing of hardship to the individual undergoing deportation proceedings. Under the new law, only hardship to qualifying relatives will be relevant. Therefore, unless the applicant has qualifying relatives, he is ineligible for suspension of deportation. This is an important development because under current law persons in exclusion proceedings have few of the rights which are accorded to those in deportation proceedings. For example, a person in exclusion proceedings has no right to bail, to adjustment of status, to voluntary departure, or to suspension of deportation.
Cancellation of removal is a discretionary form for relief.
This means that even if the applicant meets all the legal requirements, an immigration judge, at his discretion may approve or deny the application. A person whose application is denied in the discretion of the judge may appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. However, unlike present law, the new law does not allow denials of discretionary applications to be challenged in the Federal Courts. For example, international medical graduates who are subject to the two-year home residency requirement are ineligible to apply for cancellation of removal. However, persons who enlisted in the armed forces while in the U.S. who have served a mimimum of two years of honorable service may apply for cancellation of removal despite their lack of ten years continuous presence.