Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/502/314/case.php
Timestamp: 2018-07-21 09:33:56
Document Index: 154490828

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1253', '§ 208', '§ 1253', '§ 208', '§ 208', 'art 1', '§ 106', '§ 703', '§ 243', '§ 208', '§ 243', '§ 1253', '§ 208', '§ 208', '§ 208', '§208', '§ 208', '§ 242', '§ 242', 'art 1', '§ 243', '§ 1253', '§ 1253']

REHNQUIST, C.J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Part I, in which WHITE, BLACKMUN, O'CONNOR, and KENNEDY, JJ., joined, an opinion with respect to Part II, in which WHITE, BLACKMUN, and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Part III, in which KENNEDY, J., joined. SCALIA, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which STEVENS AND SOUTER, JJ., joined, post, p. 329. THOMAS, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Deputy Solicitor General Mahoney argued the cause for petitioner. On the briefs were Solicitor General Starr, Assistant Attorney General Gerson, Deputy Solicitor General Roberts, Edwin S. Kneedler, Barbara L. Herwig, and John C. Hoyle.cralaw
*Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. by David W Rivkin, Michael W Galligan, Lucas Guttentag, Steven R. Shapiro, and Carolyn Patty Blum; for Amnesty International et al. by Paul L. Hoffman; for the International Human Rights Law Group by Irwin Goldbloom; for Members of the United States Senate et al. by Carolyn Patty Blum, Kevin R. Johnson, and Joseph K. Brenner; and for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees by O. Thomas Johnson, Jr., Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Julian Fleet, and Ralph G. Steinhardt.cralaw
2 Respondent, who has been confined since his arrest by the INS, has also twice unsuccessfully filed for habeas corpus relief. Doherty v. Meese, 808 F.2d 938 (CA2 1986); Doherty v. Thornburgh, 943 F.2d 204 (CA2 1991).cralaw
4 Initially, the INS moved for reconsideration of the BIA's March 1987 decision based on new evidence in the form of an affidavit by the Associate Attorney General. The BIA reopened the appeal but refused to remand to the Immigration Judge, instead finding that the affidavit offered by the INS was not new evidence and, in any event, did not change the BIA's conclusion. App. to Pet. for Cert. 134a-142a.cralaw
The BIA granted respondent's motion to reopen, concluding that the 1987 Irish Extradition Act was a circumstance that respondent could not have been expected to anticipate, and that the result of his designation would now leave him to be extradited from Ireland to the United Kingdom, where he feared persecution. The BIA's decision to reopen was appealed by the INS and was reversed by Attorney General Thornburgh who found three independent grounds for denying Doherty's motion to reopen. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reviewed both the order of Attorney General Meese which denied respondent's designation of Ireland as the country of deportation and Attorney General Thornburgh's order denying respondent's motion to reopen his deportation proceedings. It affirmed the Meese order, but by a divided vote reversed the Thornburgh order. Doherty v. United States Dept. of Justice, INS, 908 F.2d 1108 (1990). Attorney General Thornburgh had abused his discretion in denying the motion to reopen, according to the Court of Appeals, because he had overturned the BIA's finding that respondent had produced new material evidence under an incorrect legal standard. The passing of the 1987 Irish Extradition Act in conjunction with Attorney General Meese's denial of Ireland as Doherty's country of deportation wascralaw
We granted certiorari, 498 U. S. 1081 (1991), and now decide that the Court of Appeals placed a much too narrow limit on the authority of the Attorney General to deny a motion to reopen deportation proceedings. The Attorney General based his decision to deny respondent's motion to reopen on three independent grounds. First, he concluded that respondent had not presented new evidence warranting reopening; second, he found that respondent had waived his claims to asylum and withholding of deportation by withdrawing them at his deportation hearing in September 1986; and, third, he concluded that the motion to reopen was properly denied because Doherty's involvement in serious nonpolitical crimes in Northern Ireland made him statutorily ineli-cralaw
"(C) there are serious reasons for considering that the alien has committed a serious nonpolitical crime outside the United States prior to the arrival of the alien in the United States .... "cralaw
6 This is so, in part, because every request for asylum made after institution of deportation proceedings is also considered as a request for withholding of deportation under 8 U. S. C. § 1253(h) (1988 ed. and Supp. II). 8 CFR § 208.3(b) (1983).cralaw
7We concluded that the BIA was within its discretion to deny respondent's motion to reopen both claims for relief because "respondent had not reasonably explained his failure to apply for asylum prior to the completion of the initial deportation proceeding," INS v. Abudu, 485 U. S., at 111, not because the alien was not entitled on the merits to the relief sought. Cf. post, at 333-334 (SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part).cralaw
8 At the deportation hearing, counsel for the INS stated that the INS "oppose[d] the designation of the Republic of Ireland on the ground that the respondent's deportation to the Republic of Ireland would be prejudicial to the interest of the United States" and designated the United Kingdom as "an alternate country of deportation." App.34.cralaw
9The Court of Appeals, 908 F.2d 1108, 1115-1116 (CA2 1990), and JusTICE SCALIA, post, at 338-339, suggest that the Attorney General's denial of respondent's designation of Ireland was not even foreseeable at the time of the deportation hearing. Given the statutory language of 8 U. S. C. § 1253(a) and the position taken by the INS at the deportation hearing, we find it unrealistic to assume that respondent was unaware of the possibility that his designation of Ireland might prove ineffective notwithstanding the fact that Ireland was willing to receive him. The Attorney General certainly does not abuse his discretion in failing to take such a view of the events in this case.cralaw
10 Although 8 CFR §§ 208.11 and 3.2 (1987) are nominally directed respectively at motions to reopen asylum claims and withholding of deportation claims, they are often duplicative in that an offer of material evidence which was not available at the time of the hearing would, in most cases, also be an adequate explanation for failure to pursue a claim at an earlier proceeding. As we explained in INS v. Abudu, 485 U. S. 94, 99, n. 3 (1988), the "application of 8 CFR § 208.11 (1987), which on its face applies only to asylum requests on reopening, will also usually be dispositive ofcralaw
13 At the September 12, 1986, hearing, the Immigration Judge asked respondent's counsel: "I just want to be sure ... there won't be any application for political asylum and/or withholding of deportation, correct?" to which respondent's counsel replied: "That is correct." The Immigration Judge asked again: "In other words, there is no application for relief from deportation that you will be making?" to which the response from counsel was again in the affirmative. App. 32.cralaw
I agree that the Attorney General's broad discretion to deny asylum justified his refusal to reopen the proceedings so that Doherty might apply for that relief; but a similar rationale is not applicable to the denial of reopening for the withholding-of-deportation claim. (Part I, infra.) In my view the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is wrong in asserting that there was waiver or procedural default of the withholding claim (Part II); and the Attorney General abused his discretion in decreeing that, for those or other reasons unrelated to the merits of the withholding claim, Doherty would not be allowed reopening to apply for that relief (Part III). There may be merit in the INS' alternative argument that denial of reopening for the withholding claim was proper because Doherty was statutorily ineligible for withholding; whether that is so cannot be determined without a detailed review of the factual record. (Part 1\1.)cralaw
1 Pedreiro remains the law, although the particular mode of APA review at issue in the case-an action for injunctive relief in federal district court-has been eliminated by § 106 of the INA, 8 U. S. C. § n05a, which "replaced it with direct review in the courts of appeals based on the administrative record." Agosto v. INS, 436 U. S. 748, 752-753 (1978). See 5 U. S. C. § 703 ("The form of proceeding for judicial review is the special statutory review proceeding relevant to the subject matter in a court specified by statute or, in the absence or inadequacy thereof, any applicable form of legal action, including actions for declaratory judgments or writs of prohibitory or mandatory injunction or habeas corpus, in a court of competent jurisdiction").cralaw
The imperative language of this provision is not an accident. As we recognized in INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S. 421, 428-429 (1987), the nondiscretionary duty imposed by § 243(h) parallels the United States' mandatory nonrefoulement obligations under Article 33.1 of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 189 U. N. T. S. 150, 176 (1954), reprinted in 19 U. S. T. 6259, 6276,cralaw
The United States was not a signatory to the 1954 Convention, but agreed to comply with certain provisions, including Article 33.1, in 1968, when it acceded to the United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Jan. 31, 1967, [1968] 19 U. S. T. 6223, 6225, T. I. A. S. No. 6577.cralaw
But as the emphasized phrase in the above-quoted excerpt from Abudu suggests, there is no analogue to this third ground in the context of mandatory relief. See also 485 U. S., at 106 ("[Our prior decisions] have served as support for an abuse-of-discretion standard of review for the third type of denial, where the BIA simply refuses to grant relief that is itself discretionary in nature, even if the alien has surmounted the requisite thresholds ... ") (emphasis added). There is no "merits-deciding" discretion to deny reopening in the context of withholding of deportation. The Attorneycralaw
The Attorney General asserted, as one of his reasons for denying the reopening-a reason only two Members of the Court accept, ante, at 327, 329-that Doherty "waived" his claims by withdrawing them at his deportation hearing. I do not see how that can be. The deportation proceeding had begun by the filing and service of an order to show cause why Doherty should not be deported, which order clearly contemplated that he would be deported to the United Kingdom. He initially responded to this order (and to the United Kingdom's simultaneous efforts to obtain extradition) by requesting asylum, and under 8 CFR § 208.3(b) (1983), this request was also treated as an application for withholding of deportation under § 243(h) of the INA. After the extradition proceedings had concluded in his favor, Doherty changed his mind and sought to withdraw the request and application, concede deportability, and designate Ireland as his country of deportation, pursuant to 8 U. S. C. § 1253(a). (Doherty's motive, apparently, was to get the deportation hearing over and himself out of the country quickly, before conclusion of a new extradition treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom.) I would agree that when this withdrawal was permitted by the Immigration Judge (IJ), it would have constituted a waiver of Doherty's right to withholding if some regulation precluded resubmission of a withdrawn application. No such regulation exists, however; the withdrawal of a withholding application no more prevents latercralaw
THE CHIEF JUSTICE, joined by JUSTICE KENNEDY, suggests another, more subtle, theory of waiver: Doherty waived his legal right to withholding because he did not apply for it as soon as possible. "There was nothing which prevented respondent" from making his withholding claim against the United Kingdom as the specified alternate country of deportation, ante, at 328; "[r]espondent chose, however, to withdraw" that claim, ibid.; so it was reasonable for the Attorney General to prevent him from making any withholding claim against the United Kingdom in any context. To state this argument is to expose its frailty; it simply does not follow. Unless there is some rule that says you must object to a country named in any capacity as soon as the opportunity presents itself, there is no apparent reason why the failure to do so should cause the loss of a legal right. THE CHIEF JUSTICE suggests that there is such a rule-viz., 8 CFR § 208.11 (1987), which requires that aliens who request reopening for relief from deportation must "reasonably explain the failure to request" that relief "prior to the completion of the exclusion or deportation proceeding." Unfortunately, however, § 208.11 applies only to asylum. Far from establishing a "raise-it-as-soon-as-possible" rule for withholding claims, this provision by negative implication dis-cralaw
3 THE CHIEF JUSTICE seeks to enlist the support of INS v. Abudu, 485 U. S. 94 (1988), for the proposition that-despite this negative implication-the requirement applies to withholding claims as well. Ante, at 327-328, n. 10, quoting Abudu's statement that "the ... application of 8 CFR § 208.11 (1987), which on its face applies only to asylum requests on reopening, will also usually be dispositive of its decision whether to reopen to permit a withholding of deportation request," 485 U. S., at 99, n. 3. This misses the whole point of the Abudu footnote, which is that since reopening for an asylum request automatically reopens for a withholding claim; and since the other requirements for withholding are either the same as or more stringent than the requirements for asylum; the single more rigorous asylum requirement-the "reasonable explanation" provision of §208.11-will normally, as a practical matter, decide not only whether reopening for asylum but also whether reopening for withholding will be granted. Abudu itself proved the point: The Court of Appeals had granted reopening as to the withholding claim only because it had decided that reopening was required for the asylum request. Abudu v. INS, 802 F.2d 1096, 1102 (CA9 1986). Once we decided the latter reopening was in error because the BrA had properly denied it on § 208.11 grounds, the piggybacked reopening for withholding automatically became error as well.cralaw
I agree with the INS that the asserted change in Irish law does not satisfy the reopening requirements because it was not "material" at the time the BIA first ruled on the motion to reopen in November 1988. By then Attorney General Meese had already ordered Doherty deported to the United Kingdom instead of Ireland, and any change in Irish law was no more relevant to his withholding claim than would be a change in the law of any other country to which he was not being returned. But the Attorney General's alteration of Doherty's designated country of deportation is another matter. Of course this is not what one would normally think of as a "new fac[t] to be proved at the reopened hearing" or "evidence ... to be offered." But the words can technically reach that far, and unless they are given such an expansive meaning, the regulations make no sense because they do not allow obviously necessary remands. Suppose, for example, that the Attorney General had changed Doherty's primary destination, not to the United Kingdom, but to some country that the IJ had not designated as an alternate destination.cralaw
The INS made at oral argument a contention that is to be found neither in the reasoning of the Attorney General in denying the reopening nor even in the INS' briefs: that under INS procedures Doherty was not only permitted but was actually required to present his claim for withholding during the deportation hearing, on pain of losing it. The belated discovery of this point renders it somewhat suspect, and the INS did not even cite any specific regulation upon which it is based. Presumably, however, it rests upon 8 CFR § 242.17(e) (1986), which provides that "[a]n application under this section shall be made only during the hearing .... " The section includes subsection 242.17(c), which provides that the IJ shall specify a country, or countries in the alternate, to which the respondent will be sent if he declines to designate one, or if the country of his desig-cralaw
"The special inquiry officer shall notify the respondent that if he is finally ordered deported his deportation will in the first instance be directed pursuant to section 243(a) of the [INA] to the country designated by him and shall afford the respondent an opportunity then and there to make such designation. The special inquiry officer shall then specify and state for the record the country, or countries in the alternate, to which respondent's deportation will be directed pursuant to section 243(a) of the [INA] if the country of his designation will not accept him into its territory, or fails to furnish timely notice of acceptance, or the respondent declines to designate a country. The respondent shall be advised that pursuant to section 243(h) of the [INA] he may apply for temporary withholding of deportation to the country or countries specified by the special inquiry officer and may be granted not more than ten days in which to submit his application." 8 CFR § 242. 17(c) (1986).cralaw
I have concluded that the denial of reopening in this case was justified neither by any of the theories of waiver and procedural default asserted by the INS (Part II), nor by the Attorney General's "merits-deciding" discretion discussed in Abudu (Part 1). Even so, it might be said, the act of reopening a concluded proceeding is itself a discretionary one. True-but as I discussed at the outset, it is not as discretion-cralaw
The denial of reopening here takes on a particularly capricious coloration when one compares it with the considerable indulgence accorded to the INS' procedural defaults in the same proceeding-and when one recognizes that it was precisely that indulgence which placed Doherty in the position of being unable to present his withholding claim. During the deportation hearing, the IJ rejected the INS' request tocralaw
The INS asserts that, even if the Attorney General erred in denying reopening on the basis of Doherty's alleged procedural defaults, the decision must nonetheless be upheld on the ground that the Attorney General properly concluded that Doherty was statutorily ineligible for withholding of deportation. In reaching this conclusion, the Attorney General assumed arguendo (as do I) that Doherty had established a prima facie case of eligibility for withholding of deportation under § 243(h)(1). His finding of statutory ineligibility was based solely on the determination that there were "serious reasons for considering that [Doherty] has committed a serious nonpolitical crime," 8 U. S. C. § 1253(h)(2)(C), and that Doherty had himself "assisted, orcralaw
"(C) there are serious reasons for considering that the alien has committed a serious nonpolitical crime outside the United States prior to the arrival of the alien in the United States .... " 8 U. S. C. §§ 1253(h)(2)(A), (C).cralaw