Source: http://openjurist.org/144/f3d/212
Timestamp: 2015-03-27 13:31:42
Document Index: 493308060

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 220', '§ 241', '§ 1251', '§ 220', '§ 241', '§ 220', '§ 241', '§ 1227', '§ 1251', '§ 242', '§ 1252', '§ 106', '§ 1105', '§ 440', '§ 106', '§ 440', '§ 106', '§ 242', '§ 1105']

144 F3d 212 Jean-Baptiste v. Reno | OpenJurist
144 F. 3d 212 - Jean-Baptiste v. Reno	Home144 f3d 212 jean-baptiste v. reno
144 F3d 212 Jean-Baptiste v. Reno 144 F.3d 212
Neil JEAN-BAPTISTE, Gustavo Enrique Cepeda-Torres, andVictor Israel Santana, on behalf of themselves andall others similarly situated,Plaintiffs-Appellants,v.Janet RENO, Attorney General of the United States ofAmerica, and Immigration and NaturalizationService, Defendants-Appellees.
Docket 97-6062.
Argued Nov. 18, 1997.Decided May 8, 1998.
Eladio A. Torres, New York City (Antonio C. Martinez, Law Office of Dr. Antonio C. Martinez, New York City, of counsel), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Quynh Vu, Washington, DC (Frank W. Hunger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Civil Div., William J. Howard, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Depart. of Justice, Washington, DC; Zachary W. Carter, U.S. Atty., Mary Elizabeth Delli-Pizzi, Special Asst. U.S. Atty., Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, NY, of counsel), for DefendantsAppellees.
Before: KEARSE, CARDAMONE, Circuit Judges, and LEISURE*, District Judge.
Plaintiffs Neil Jean-Baptiste, Gustavo Enrique Cepeda-Torres, and Victor Israel Santana appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Johnson, J.), entered February 27, 1997, granting the motion of defendants Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States, and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6).
All three of the plaintiffs in this case are aliens who have been granted permanent residency in the United States. The INS ordered their deportation following their criminal convictions for drug offenses. Plaintiffs commenced the present suit in the district court challenging the deportation procedures followed by the INS under recently-enacted immigration laws. They alleged that those procedures violated their Fifth Amendment rights to due process.
It is true that the immigration laws appear at times to be a monstrous legislative morass, difficult to track and even more difficult to comprehend. Nonetheless, insofar as we can determine, Congress has removed from the jurisdiction of federal courts authority to entertain and decide the sort of action plaintiffs have instituted. Accordingly, we must affirm the district court's dismissal of the plaintiffs' claims.
Plaintiff Neil Jean-Baptiste is a 27-year-old national of Haiti who became a legal permanent resident of the United States in 1972 at the age of two. In 1989, after pleading guilty, he was convicted in New York state court for criminal possession of a controlled substance in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 220.18 (McKinney 1989 & Supp.1998). Based on this conviction, the Immigration Court ordered him deported on August 9, 1996 pursuant to §§ 241(a)(2)(B)(i) and 241(a)(2)(A)(iii) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA). See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1251(a)(2)(B)(i); 1251(a)(2)(A)(iii) (1994).
Plaintiff Gustavo Enrique Cepeda-Torres is a 23-year-old national of Colombia who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 1982 at the age of eight. In 1995 he pled guilty and was convicted in New York state court of the criminal sale of a controlled substance in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31 (McKinney 1989). Like Jean-Baptiste, he was ordered deported in 1996, pursuant to §§ 241(a)(2)(B)(i) and 241(a)(2)(A)(iii) of the INA.
Plaintiff Victor Israel Santana, a 36-year-old national of the Dominican Republic, entered the United States in 1989 as a conditional permanent resident. He too was convicted in 1995 in New York state court of the criminal sale of a controlled substance in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 220.39 (McKinney 1989 & Supp.1998) and was ordered deported based on that conviction by the Immigration Court in 1996. Plaintiffs' appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) from their deportation orders were dismissed.
The Relevant Statutory Scheme
The Immigration Court ordered plaintiffs deported pursuant to §§ 241(a)(2)(B)(i) and 241(a)(2)(A)(iii) of the INA. Section 241(a)(2)(B)(i), now codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) (Supp. II 1996), stated at the relevant time that "[a]ny alien who at any time after entry has been convicted of a violation of ... any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance ... is deportable." Section 241(a)(2)(A)(iii), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(2)(A)(iii) (Supp. II 1996), then provided that "[a]ny alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after entry is deportable." There is no requirement in the INA that legal aliens granted permanent residency in the United States be given notice that they could lose such status were they to be convicted of committing these crimes. Nor were any of the plaintiffs, in fact, given such notice.
Plaintiffs filed a proposed class action suit in the Eastern District before Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. on August 19, 1996, challenging the procedures employed by the INS with respect to their deportations. They alleged that they, lawful permanent residents who have been convicted of certain criminal acts after their entry and grant of permanent resident status, were entitled to notice that engaging in criminal behavior could subject them to consequences under the immigration laws. They asserted that this lack of notice violates their constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process. Because they had not received such notice, they argued that the INS should be enjoined from enforcing the deportation orders that have been filed against them. In response defendants moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), but agreed not to deport appellants until the dismissal motion was judicially resolved.1. Lack of Jurisdiction
Regarding the lack of jurisdiction claim, defendants asserted that INA § 242(g), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) (Supp. II 1996), divested the district court of jurisdiction over the case. Section 242(g) states
Section 242(g) was enacted on September 30, 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (Immigration Reform Act), Pub.L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996). That Act was the second of two signed into law in 1996 that substantially curtailed federal courts' jurisdiction over claims raised by aliens in deportation proceedings. The first was the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (Antiterrorism Act), Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996), signed into law five months earlier on April 24, 1996.
Prior to the passage of the Antiterrorism Act, resident aliens facing deportation could seek federal judicial review under INA § 106(a)(10), which provided that "any alien held in custody pursuant to an order of deportation may obtain judicial review thereof by habeas corpus proceedings." 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a)(10) (1994) (amended 1996 and repealed 1996). Section 440(a) of the Antiterrorism Act, Pub.L. No. 104-132 at 440(a), 110 Stat. 1214, 1276-77 (1996) (hereinafter Antiterrorism Act § 440(a)), however, amended the text of INA § 106(a)(10) in April of 1996 and significantly withdrew federal jurisdiction over claims brought by aliens who have been ordered deported because of convictions for specified offenses. It read as follows
(10) Any final order of deportation against an alien who is deportable by reason of having committed a criminal offense covered in section 241(a)(2)(A)(iii), (B), (C), or (D), or any offense covered by section 241(a)(2)(A)(ii) for which both predicate offenses are covered by section 241(a)(2)(A)(i), shall not be subject to review by any court.
Antiterrorism Act § 440(a). The Immigration Reform Act repealed the amended § 106(a)(10) five months later, but enacted similar language in the new INA § 242(a)(2)(C). See 8 U.S.C. §§ 1105a & 125