Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/743/1365/364716/
Timestamp: 2019-05-25 13:06:59
Document Index: 525288800

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1252', '§ 1105', '§ 1331', '§ 1329', '§ 1252', '§ 1101']

National Center for Immigrants Rights, Inc., et al.,plaintiffs-appellees, v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, et al., Defendants-appellants, 743 F.2d 1365 (9th Cir. 1984) :: Justia
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National Center for Immigrants Rights, Inc., et al.,plaintiffs-appellees, v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, et al., Defendants-appellants, 743 F.2d 1365 (9th Cir. 1984)
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit - 743 F.2d 1365 (9th Cir. 1984)
Argued and Submitted June 8, 1984. Decided Sept. 28, 1984
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) appeals the district court's grant of a preliminary injunction restraining the INS from applying a new regulation which became effective December 7, 1983. The previous INS regulations provided that in his discretion the District Director, with the prior approval of the INS Regional Commissioner, could include a condition barring unauthorized employment in an appearance and delivery bond in connection with deportation proceedings. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 103.6(a) (2) (ii) (1983). In the regulation now being challenged, the INS does away with individualized determinations. The new regulation provides in part that " [a] condition barring employment shall be included in an appearance and delivery bond in connection with a deportation proceeding.... Only those aliens who upon application ... establish compelling reasons for granting employment authorization may be authorized to accept employment." 8 C.F.R. Secs. 103.6(a) (2) (ii)-(iii), 109.1(b) (8) (1984).1
The INS raises a two-pronged threshold attack on the district court's jurisdiction. First, the INS asserts that judicial review is available only through the habeas corpus provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a). Second, the INS argues that this case is not ripe for adjudication.
Precisely drawn statutory procedures, such as this habeas corpus procedure, are generally held to preempt more general grants of jurisdiction in cases to which they apply. See, e.g., Brown v. GSA, 425 U.S. 820, 834, 96 S. Ct. 1961, 1968, 48 L. Ed. 2d 402 (1976). The INS states that the legislative history shows Congress' intent to make section 1252(a) an exclusive remedy:
However, we conclude that section 1252(a) is inapplicable to this case. Section 1252(a) deals only with complaints about delays in determining deportability in individual cases. In Haitian Refugee Center v. Smith, 676 F.2d 1023 (5th Cir. 1982), disapproved on other grounds, Jean v. Nelson, 727 F.2d 957, 976 n. 27 (11th Cir. 1984) (en banc), the court drew a distinction between jurisdiction to rule on the merits of an individual deportation order and jurisdiction to rule on a pattern and practice of constitutional violations. The court held that although 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a) gave courts of appeals exclusive jurisdiction to review alleged procedural irregularities in an individual deportation hearing, an allegedly unlawful pattern, program, or scheme of immigration officials was subject to examination by the district court under federal question jurisdiction. Id. at 1033. Here, the NCIR challenges the imposition of an automatic employment prohibition in all release bonds on statutory and constitutional grounds. In its prayer for relief, NCIR does not seek a review on the merits of any individual determination by the INS regarding release on bond. See id. at 1033 n. 23. Thus, the district court properly has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 to examine the merits of NCIR's challenges and to enter declaratory and injunctive relief. The district court is also given jurisdiction over claims arising under the immigration statutes. 8 U.S.C. § 1329.
The INS also asserts that this challenge to the regulation is not ripe, arguing that because one of NCIR's major contentions is that the procedures used in applying the regulation are inadequate, the court should await a more concrete case which may throw more light on the statutory and practical justifications for the regulation. See, e.g., Toilet Goods Association, Inc. v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 158, 87 S. Ct. 1520, 18 L. Ed. 2d 697 (1967).
The relevant considerations in determining whether a challenge to administrative action is ripe are (1) whether the issues are fit for judicial determination, and (2) the hardship to the parties from withholding consideration. Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149, 87 S. Ct. 1507, 1515, 18 L. Ed. 2d 681 (1967). The district court found that both considerations warranted present judicial review. The issues are "fit" for decision because the regulation is presently being enforced and is unquestionably final, because nothing in the Act precludes present review, and because the issues presented do not require further factual development by the administrative process. See id. More important, the district court found that the individual plaintiffs were suffering a significant and immediate hardship from the regulation. The court correctly concluded that the issue was ripe.
We reverse an order issuing or denying a preliminary injunction only if the district court abused its discretion or based its decision in its preliminary review of the merits on erroneous legal principles. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission v. National Football League, 634 F.2d 1197, 1200 (9th Cir. 1980).
To obtain a preliminary injunction, the moving party must demonstrate either (1) probable success on the merits and the possibility of irreparable injury, or (2) that serious questions are raised and the balance of hardships sharply favors the moving party. Beltran v. Myers, 677 F.2d 1317, 1320 (9th Cir. 1982). These are not separate tests, but are the ends of a continuum; the greater the relative hardship to the moving party, the less probability of success must be shown. Benda v. Grand Lodge of the International Association of Machinists, 584 F.2d 308, 315 (9th Cir. 1978), cert. dismissed, 441 U.S. 937, 99 S. Ct. 2065, 60 L. Ed. 2d 667 (1979).
The INS requests that this court decide the merits of the case because the validity of the regulation is a question of law reviewable de novo. We decline to do so. The only conclusion of law entered by the district court is that NCIR has a fair chance of prevailing on the merits on two of its arguments. The parties have not had the benefit either of a full opportunity to present their cases or of a final judicial decision on the merits of the controversy. See University of Texas v. Camenisch, 451 U.S. 390, 396, 101 S. Ct. 1830, 68 L. Ed. 2d 175 (1981). This court thus limits its review of the merits to determining whether the district court abused its discretion by concluding that NCIR had a fair chance of success. See, e.g., Sports Form, Inc. v. UPI, 686 F.2d 750, 752 (9th Cir. 1982). See also Otero Savings & Loan Association v. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 665 F.2d 275, 277 (10th Cir. 1981) (review on merits is limited to extraordinary cases in which trial court has ruled on a motion for preliminary injunction based on a final interpretation of the law as applied to undisputed facts).
The district court found merit in NCIR's argument that a condition of release must be related to securing the detainee's presence at future deportation proceedings. See, e.g., Matter of Patel, 15 I & N Dec. 666 (BIA 1976). Section 242 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a), authorizes the Attorney General to set conditions for release on bond:
The INS asserts that this Act gives the Attorney General "untrammeled" authority to impose any release conditions reasonably related to the purposes of the Act, and that a major purpose of the Act is to protect the American labor force by precluding aliens from engaging in unauthorized employment. The INS relies on 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101(a) (15), 1182(a) (14) for this proposition. Thus, the INS argues, prohibiting employment pending deportation hearing is consistent with the overall legislative scheme.
To support this argument, the INS relies primarily on Carlson v. Landon, 342 U.S. 524, 72 S. Ct. 525, 96 L. Ed. 547 (1952). Carlson involved a challenge to the Attorney General's decision to hold five active alien Communists without bail pending determination of their deportability. Carlson does not conclusively control this case for two reasons. First, in Carlson, the Attorney General justified the exercise of his discretion to deny bail "by reference to the legislative scheme to eradicate the evils of Communist activity." Carlson, 342 U.S. at 543, 72 S. Ct. at 536. The Supreme Court stated that " [a]s the purpose of the Internal Security Act to deport all alien Communists as a menace to the security of the United States is established by the Internal Security Act itself, Title I, Sec. 2, we conclude that the discretion as to bail in the Attorney General was certainly broad enough to justify his detention of all these parties without bail as a menace to the public interest." Carlson, 342 U.S. at 541, 72 S. Ct. at 534. In contrast to Congress' clear directives under the Internal Security Act in the area of national security, " [t]he INA evinces 'at best evidence of peripheral concern with employment of illegal entrants.' " Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, --- U.S. ----, 104 S. Ct. 2803, 2809, 81 L. Ed. 2d 732 (1984) (quoting De Canas v. Bica, 424 U.S. 351, 360, 96 S. Ct. 933, 939, 47 L. Ed. 2d 43 (1976)). Congress has not made it a criminal offense for an alien to accept employment after entering this country without proper authorization. Sure-Tan, 104 S. Ct. at 2809.
Second, in Carlson, there was evidence as to each of the aliens of "membership plus personal activity in supporting and extending the Party's philosophy concerning violence" which justified the exercise of the Attorney General's discretion to deny bail. Carlson, 342 U.S. at 541, 72 S. Ct. at 535. The Court noted that not all persons arrested as deportable under the Internal Security Act are denied bail. Id. at 541-42, 72 S. Ct. at 534-35. The discretion of the Attorney General to impose a condition on a particularized showing in an individual case is quite different from the authority to do so by a blanket rule. As Justice Frankfurter observed:If the Attorney General, after the Internal Security Act, had made a general ruling that thereafter he would not allow bail to any alien against whom deportation proceedings were started and who was then a member of the Communist Party--an undiscriminating, unindividualized class determination--it would disregard the clear directive of Congress for this Court not to hold that the Attorney General had exceeded the limits of his discretion.
Id. at 558, 72 S. Ct. at 543 (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). Cf. Rubinstein v. Brownell, 206 F.2d 449, 455-56 (D.C. Cir. 1953) (detention of alien seeking judicial review of deportation order was improper when Attorney General made no showing that the alien would abscond or engage in subversive or criminal activity), aff'd per curiam by an equally divided court, 346 U.S. 929, 74 S. Ct. 319, 98 L. Ed. 421 (1954). See also O'Rourke v. Warden, 539 F. Supp. 1131, 1137 (S.D.N.Y. 1982) (court should review whether agency's decision to deny bail is supported by or has reasonable foundation in the record). In conformity with these authorities, under the prior regulation the INS required specific, individualized information to justify an employment prohibition condition in each case. Matter of Vea, Interim Decision # 2890 at 5 (BIA 1981); Matter of Leon-Perez, 15 I & N Dec. 239 (BIA 1975); 8 C.F.R. Sec. 103.6(a) (2) (1983).
The INS asserts that in the absence of class certification, the preliminary injunction may properly cover only the named plaintiffs. We agree. See, e.g., Hollon v. Mathis Independent School District, 491 F.2d 92 (5th Cir. 1974) (when suit was brought by individual challenging school regulations, a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the regulation against anyone else went further than necessary to serve the purpose of maintaining the parties' status quo pending trial on the merits); Davis v. Romney, 490 F.2d 1360, 1366 (3d Cir. 1974) ("Relief cannot be granted to a class before an order has been entered determining that class treatment is proper"); Tape Head Co. v. RCA, 452 F.2d 816, 819 (10th Cir. 1971).
(8) Any excludable or deportable alien who has posted an appearance and delivery bond may be granted temporary employment authorization if the District Director determines that employment is appropriate under Sec. 103.6(a) (2) (iii) of this chapter.
The NCIR also contends that detained aliens have a protected liberty interest under the fifth amendment in working until their deportability is determined in a due process hearing. In addition, plaintiffs argue that the regulation violates their due process rights under the fifth amendment because it lacks procedures by which an alien may obtain employment authorization. See Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S. Ct. 893, 47 L. Ed. 2d 18 (1976). Although we need not decide these questions here, we agree with the district court that plaintiffs' arguments have some merit