Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/229/406/577482/
Timestamp: 2017-11-23 09:10:33
Document Index: 142302914

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 21', '§ 241', '§ 1251', '§ 237', '§ 1227', '§ 241', '§ 1251', '§ 237', '§ 1227', '§ 101', '§ 1101', '§ 237', '§ 237', '§ 2241', '§ 2241', '§ 237', '§ 242', '§ 1252', '§ 212', '§ 440', '§ 309', '§ 212', '§ 212', '§ 1229', '§ 240', '§ 1229', '§ 212', '§ 1182', '§ 1129', '§ 440', '§ 237', '§ 1182', '§ 440', '§ 1229', '§ 1251', '§ 1251', '§ 1101', '§ 212', '§ 440', '§ 212', '§ 212', '§ 304', '§ 304', '§ 1101', '§ 440', '§ 304', '§ 440', '§ 440', '§ 440', '§ 440', '§ 309', '§ 309', '§ 304', '§ 304', '§ 309', '§ 304', '§ 1227', '§ 212', '§ 237', '§ 304', '§ 1997', '§ 803', '§ 803', '§ 803', '§ 803', '§ 237', '§ 304', '§ 237', '§ 304', '§ 237', '§ 304', '§ 60', '§ 60', '§ 440', '§ 304', '§ 440', '§ 304', '§ 440', '§ 304', '§ 212', '§ 440', '§ 304', '§ 212', '§ 309', '§ 309', '§ 303', '§ 242', '§ 1252', '§ 306', '§ 308', '§ 212', '§ 212', '§ 304', '§ 212', '§ 304', '§ 212', '§ 304', '§ 212', '§ 212', '§ 212', '§ 304', '§ 237', '§ 237', '§ 101', '§ 1101', '§ 7344', '§ 1251', '§ 212', '§ 511', '§ 1182', '§ 501', '§ 222', '§ 1101']

Enrico St. Cyr, Petitioner-appellee, v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Respondent-appellant, 229 F.3d 406 (2d Cir. 2000) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Second Circuit › 2000 › Enrico St. Cyr, Petitioner-appellee, v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Respondent-appellant
Enrico St. Cyr, Petitioner-appellee, v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Respondent-appellant, 229 F.3d 406 (2d Cir. 2000)
US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit - 229 F.3d 406 (2d Cir. 2000)
On March 8, 1996, prior to the enactment date of the AEDPA and IIRIRA, St. Cyr pled guilty to the sale of a controlled hallucinogenic narcotic in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 21a-277(a). At the time that St. Cyr pled guilty to the charge, the drug conviction rendered him deportable under the immigration laws. See INA § 241(a) (2) (B) (i), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a) (2) (B) (i) (1994), now renumbered as INA § 237(a) (2) (B) (i), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a) (2) (B) (i) (1999); see also INA § 241(a) (2) (A) (iii), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a) (2) (A) (iii) (1994), now renumbered as INA § 237(a) (2) (iii), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a) (2) (A) (iii) (1999); INA § 101(a) (43), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(43) (1999).1
On April 10, 1997, the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") issued St Cyr a Notice to Appear, charging him as removable under INA § 237(a) (2) (A) (iii) because he had been convicted of an aggravated felony. On January 12, 1998, an immigration judge ("IJ") found that St. Cyr was removable under INA § 237(a) (2) (A) (iii). In the time between St. Cyr's conviction and his receipt of a Notice to Appear, Congress enacted the AEDPA and IIRIRA. These laws significantly limited the cases where discretionary relief from deportation could be sought and rendered an alien who was removable because of an aggravated felony conviction statutorily ineligible to apply for relief from deportation.
The INS's arguments that the district court lacked jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to decide St. Cyr's claim are foreclosed by our decision in Calcano-Martinez v. Reno, Civ. Nos. 98-4033, 98-4214, 98-4246 (2d Cir. 2000), a case argued on the same day as this one. In that case, we held that the permanent rules of IIRIRA do not divest Article III courts of their habeas jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 to review statutory and constitutional challenges to final removal orders when no other avenue for judicial review is available. Here, no such avenue existed because St. Cyr, convicted of a crime involving a controlled substance, is an alien deportable under INA § 237(a) (2) (A) (iii). A petition in the court of appeals pursuant to INA § 242(a) (1) is, therefore, unavailable to him. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a) (2) (C) (1999).
This section shall not apply to an alien who is deportable by reason of having committed any 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).
Just a few months later, on September 30, 1996, Congress enacted IIRIRA, which wrought further changes to the availability of deportation waivers. IIRIRA included temporary transitional rules and permanent rules. Under the statutory interplay of IIRIRA's transitional rules and the AEDPA, the Attorney General was able, in her discretion, to grant relief from deportation under INA § 212(c) as amended by § 440(d). See IIRIRA § 309(c) (1), 110 Stat. at 3009-625 (most of IIRIRA amendments to the INA do not apply to aliens placed in deportation proceedings prior to April 1, 1997); see also Tasios v. Reno, 204 F.3d 544, 547 n.1 (4th Cir. 2000).
The permanent provisions of IIRIRA, however, repeal INA § 212(c) altogether and consolidate prior "suspension of deportation" relief and aspects of former § 212(c) relief into an entirely new form of relief. See 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a) (3) (1999). Section 304(a) of IIRIRA, entitled "Cancellation of removal for certain permanent residents," found at INA § 240A, provides:
8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a) (1999). Cancellation of removal is thus limited to a smaller category of aliens than had historically been eligible for pre-AEDPA § 212(c) relief because it is unavailable to all aliens convicted of aggravated felonies and not just to those imprisoned for more than five years. Compare 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c) (1994) with 8 U.S.C. § 1129b (1999). Cancellation of removal, however, is categorically available to a larger number of aliens than those eligible under AEDPA § 440(d) because it restores the availability of discretionary relief for aliens deportable because they committed two or more crimes of moral turpitude under INA § 237(a) (2) (A) (ii). Compare 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c) as amended by AEDPA § 440(d) with 8 U.S.C. § 1229b (1999).
This complex statutory history applies to St. Cyr as follows: when St. Cyr pled guilty to drug trafficking in March of 1996, he was deportable under the immigration laws as an alien convicted of a drug-related offense which constituted an aggravated felony as defined under the INA. See 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a) (2) (B) (i) (1994); 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a) (2) (A) (iii) (1994); 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a) (43). At the time he pled guilty to the deportable offense, he was eligible to apply for a waiver of deportation under § 212(c) of the INA. On April 24, 1996, before removal proceedings were commenced against St. Cyr, AEDPA § 440(d) was enacted, making aliens such as he ineligible to apply for a § 212(c) waiver. By April 10, 1997, the date that removal proceedings against St. Cyr were commenced, INA § 212(c) relief had been repealed by IIRIRA § 304(b) and replaced by "cancellation of removal" in § 304(a). St. Cyr was ineligible to apply for "cancellation from removal" by its terms because he was convicted of an aggravated felony. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a) (43). Thus, if either AEDPA § 440(d) or IIRIRA § 304 apply to this case, as the INS argues, St. Cyr is removable because he pled guilty to a deportable offense and is statutorily ineligible to apply to the BIA for discretionary relief from deportation.
The specific issue raised in this case, however, is not whether the bar to relief applies to pending removal proceedings but whether it bars an alien who pled guilty to the deportable crime before the AEDPA or IIRIRA's effective date from applying for a waiver. The question whether Congress intended AEDPA § 440(d) to apply to removal proceedings against an alien ordered removed because of a pre-enactment conviction or criminal conduct has been much discussed in numerous published opinions of district courts and courts of appeals. When the past conduct under the Landgraf analysis changes from the commencement of removal proceedings to the conviction or criminal conduct, the majority of courts of appeals that have considered AEDPA § 440(d) conclude that Congress's intent whether to apply the law retrospectively is ambiguous. See Mattis v. Reno, 212 F.3d 31, 36 (1st Cir. 2000); Tasios v. Reno, 204 F.3d 544, 550 (4th Cir. 2000); Magana-Pizano, 200 F.3d at 612; Requena-Rodriquez v. Pasquarell, 190 F.3d 299, 307-8 (5th Cir. 1999); DeSousa v. Reno, 190 F.3d 175, 186-87 (3d Cir. 1999); Jurado-Gutierrez v. Greene, 190 F.3d 1135, 1150 (10th Cir. 1999), cert. denied Palaganas-Suarez v. Greene, 120 S. Ct. 1539 (2000); Turkhan v. Perryman, 188 F.3d 814, 826 (7th Cir. 1999). We agree with the majority of courts that have held that Congress's intent whether to apply AEDPA § 440(d) to pre-enactment convictions is ambiguous and because the question has been thoroughly analyzed in the foregoing opinions, we do not set forth our own detailed analysis of AEDPA § 440(d).
We disagree that IIRIRA's general effective date provision set forth in IIRIRA § 309(a) demonstrates that Congress carefully considered whether the repeal of the only opportunity for relief from removal should bar that relief for an alien who pled guilty prior to IIRIRA's enactment to the crime rendering him or her removable. In Landgraf, the Supreme Court noted that a provision stating that " [a] statute will become effective on a certain date does not even arguably suggest that it has any application to conduct that occurred at an earlier date." 511 U.S. at 257. Although the language in IIRIRA § 309(a) is arguably more direct than a typical effective date provision, it is not precise enough to mandate retroactive application of IIRIRA § 304 under the first step of the Landgraf inquiry. " [T]he only presumption mentioned in [Landgraf] is a general presumption against retroactivity," Hughes Aircraft, 520 U.S. at 950. Accordingly, in its post-Landgraf decisions, the Supreme Court has indicated that a "heightened level of clarity" is required to justify the retroactive application of a law that implicates past conduct. See Salahuddin v. Mead, 174 F.3d 271, 275 (2d Cir. 1999) (citing Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 328 n.4 (1997); Hughes Aircraft, 520 U.S. at 946 (1997)). Therefore, Congress must have used statutory language that can "sustain only one interpretation" in order to make IIRIRA § 304 retroactive to pre-enactment guilty pleas. See Lindh, 521 U.S. at 328 n.4. We shall not infer from the general language contained in IIRIRA § 309(a), making § 304 effective in pending proceedings, that Congress also intended the bar to discretionary relief to apply to pre-enactment guilty pleas, an application that we hold today has an impermissible retroactive effect. See infra at Section IIB(2).
The INS notes that the removal ground underlying St. Cyr's proceedings, made applicable by IIRIRA, renders aliens subject to removal proceedings if they were "convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after admission." 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a) (2) (A) (iii) (1999) (emphasis added). The INS argues that the use of past-tense language to qualify the timing of a deportable conviction shows that Congress clearly intended that an alien, such as St. Cyr, who committed his or her crime and was convicted prior to IIRIRA's April 1, 1997, effective date would become subject to removal proceedings in which § 212(c) relief is no longer available.
We are not persuaded that the use of the past tense in INA § 237 is an indication that Congress intended IIRIRA § 304 to apply retrospectively. A similar argument was considered and rejected by the Supreme Court in Martin v. Hadix, 527 U.S. at 354-55. There, the Court considered the retroactivity of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PLRA"), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(d) (3), which limited the fees available to prisoners' attorneys who were monitoring prisons post-judgment. See Martin, 527 U.S. at 347. The petitioners argued that the language of § 803(d) (1) -- " [i]n any action brought by a prisoner who is confined [to a correctional facility] ... attorney's fees ... shall not be awarded" -- clearly expressed a congressional intent that § 803(d) apply to pending cases. Id. at 2003-4 (emphasis added). The Court rejected the argument that Congress's use of a past-tense verb clearly indicated Congress's intent that the provision apply to pending cases. The Court reasoned that § 803(d) (1) "define [s] the substantive availability of attorney's fees; [it] [does] not purport to define the temporal reach of these substantive limitations." Id. at 354. Thus, the Court concluded that the language fell short of demonstrating a clear congressional intent to apply § 803(d) retrospectively to pending cases and that had Congress intended the provision to apply to all fee orders, including those compensating work performed before the effective date, "it could have used language more obviously targeted to addressing the temporal reach of that section." Id.
Under the reasoning of Martin, the use of a past-tense verb in INA § 237(a) (2) (iii) is not dispositive of Congress's intent to apply IIRIRA § 304 retroactively to pre-enactment convictions. The language "convicted of an aggravated felony" in INA § 237(a) (2) (iii) is used to describe the substantive availability for removal from the United States. It is not used to describe the retrospective application of IIRIRA § 304. We therefore cannot and will not rely on the text of INA § 237(a) (2) (A) (iii) to hold that IIRIRA § 304 applies in cases where an alien pled guilty to the underlying deportable crime prior to IIRIRA's enactment.
As the Amici7 in this case demonstrate, a legal resident who is charged with a crime that renders him emovable from the United States carefully considers the immigration consequences of his or her conviction and, specifically, the availability of discretionary relief from removal. It is not unreasonable to attribute knowledge of the availability of relief to a legal resident because it is a common requirement that defense counsel and the court advise a criminal defendant of the immigration consequences of a guilty plea. Additionally, an attorney's professional duty to his or her client includes advising that client of the immigration consequences of a plea or conviction. See Magana-Pizano, 200 F.3d at 612; see also ABA Standards for Criminal Justice, Pleas of Guilty, Standard 14-3.2, commentary at 75 (2d ed. 1982) (providing that where it is apparent that a defendant faces deportation as a result of conviction, counsel "should fully advise the defendant of these consequences."); National Legal Aid and Defender Association Performance Guidelines for Criminal Defense Representation, Guideline 6.2(a) (3) and commentary (1994) (recognizing that it is defense counsel's duty to "be fully aware of, and make sure that the client is fully aware of . . . consequences of conviction such as deportation."). A criminal defense law treatise provides that:
Preserving the client's right to remain in the United States may be more important to the client than any potential jail sentence. Thus, the immigration consequences of a prosecution may totally alter the strategies chosen . . . a [ny] attorney who suspects that this client is an alien has a duty to inquire and to protect his client's immigration status. Pleas and admissions must be approached with caution and with knowledge of the consequences. . . .
§ 60 A. 01 and § 60 A. 2 [2]. Furthermore, lawful permanent residents are typically part of a resident alien community and are likely aware of what happens to other members of the community who engage in criminal conduct. See Pottinger, 51 F. Supp. 2d at 363.
" [I]ndividuals should have an opportunity to know what the law is and to conform their conduct accordingly." Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 265. Because there is sufficient evidence that a legal resident accused of a crime that renders him or her removable from this country would have conformed his or her conduct according to the availability of relief when he or she pled guilty, AEDPA § 440(d) and IIRIRA § 304 would severely upset settled expectations were it applied retroactively to pre-enactment guilty pleas. A repeal of the eligibility to apply for relief from removal would attach new legal consequences to a legal resident's guilty plea to a removal crime. Therefore, AEDPA § 440(d) and IIRIRA § 304 have an impermissible retroactive effect as applied to pre-enactment guilty pleas.
We are not persuaded that, as the INS argues, because the bar to relief can be described as a new jurisdictional rule -- in that it gives the Attorney General jurisdiction to grant a waiver in her discretion -- it automatically has no retroactive effect. It is true that a change in law that "speak [s] to the power of the court rather than to the rights or obligations of the parties" may be applied in a case without raising concerns that it is impermissibly retroactive. Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 274 (quoting Republic Nat'l Bank of Miami v. United States, 506 U.S. 80, 100 (1992) (Thomas, J. concurring). In Hughes Aircraft, however, the Supreme Court explained that a jurisdictional statute that does not "merely address [] which court shall have jurisdiction to entertain a particular cause of action" but, rather, affects "whether [a claim] may be brought at all" should not presumptively be given retroactive effect. 520 U.S. at 951. AEDPA § 440(d) and IIRIRA § 304 do not merely change the degree of deference to be afforded a § 212(c) request or change the judicial or administrative forum in which relief may be granted. Rather, they alter the substantive rights of aliens subject to removal proceedings because it eradicates a form of relief previously available. By their terms, AEDPA § 440(d) and IIRIRA § 304 attach new substantive legal consequences to a guilty or nolo contendere plea to a deportable crime and would have an impermissible retroactive effect if applied to pre-enactment pleas.
Our conclusion here is consistent with the law of this Circuit. In Buitrago-Cuesta, we considered a 1990 amendment to INA § 212(c) which precluded an alien who had "been convicted of an aggravated felony and has served a term of at least 5 years" from seeking a discretionary waiver from deportability. See 7 F.3d at 292. The petitioner in that case argued that because at the time of his conviction his crime was not defined as an "aggravated felony," the 1990 amendment should not apply to his deportation proceeding commenced prior to the amendment. See id. We decided that Congress intended that the 1990 amendment be applied retrospectively. See id. at 295. Since we decided Buitrago-Cuesta, however, the Supreme Court has decided Landgraf, Hughes Aircraft, and Martin, cases that honed retroactivity principles. See id. at 293 (" [at time of decision] [t]he Supreme Court's position on the retroactivity of civil statutes is somewhat unclear."). Moreover, the petitioner in Buitrago-Cuesta did not pled guilty to a deportable crime but instead was convicted after a jury trial in state court. See id. at 293. Therefore, our ruling today that the 1996 amendments insofar as they bar relief afforded prior to their enactment have a retroactive effect as applied to pre-enactment guilty pleas -- a situation where an alien is likely to strategize according to the availability of discretionary relief -- does not contradict our earlier ruling in Buitrago-Cuesta.
IIRIRA § 309 fixed April 1, 1997 as IIRIRA's effective date. See 110 Stat. at 3009-625. While § 309 contains a general savings clause listing those aliens for whom IIRIRA does not apply as of its effective date, none of those exceptions are relevant here. See § 303(b) (2), 110 Stat. at 3009-586; § 242(g), 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g); § 306(c), 110 Stat. at 3009-612; §§ 308(d) (2) (D) & (d) (5), 110 Stat. at 3009-617, 619. Moreover, Congress, intending that IIRIRA be a complete break from the past, enacted transitional provisions that would operate during a phase-in period ending on IIRIRA's effective date. See Calcano-Martinez v. Reno, Civ. Nos. 98-4033, 98-4214, 98-4246, at 13-17 (describing IIRIRA's transitional rules). This legislative scheme of transitional provisions followed by permanent legislation can be reduced to one essential point relevant to IIRIRA's repeal of § 212(c): Congress intended the whole of IIRIRA's permanent provisions to apply to every alien as of April 1, 1997, except where it expressly exempted those provisions that were not meant to apply as of that date. The provision repealing § 212(c) was not one of them. Included in the provisions generally effective as of April 1, 1997 is § 304(b), repealing § 212(c), and § 304(a), replacing § 212(c) with new provisions entitled "Cancellation of Removal." See § 304, 110 Stat. at 3009-594-97. The new cancellation of removal proceedings exclude specified classes of criminal aliens, including the petitioner here, from seeking discretionary relief.
The majority discounts this argument, suggesting that it is based on nothing more than the statute's effective date and that such reasoning is impermissible because of the pronouncement in Landgraf that " [a] statement that a statute will become effective on a certain date does not even arguably suggest that it has any application to conduct that occurred at an earlier date." Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 257. But the Court's statement in Landgraf is inapplicable here. Changes to the Civil Rights Act of 1991, at issue in Landgraf, created new rights of employees "to recover compensatory and punitive damages for certain violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964," id. at 247, and the Court had to decide only whether a Title VII plaintiff whose suit was on appeal when the 1991 Act was enacted should be retroactively entitled to the Act's punitive damages provisions. In that context, the fact that the 1991 Act was enacted on November 21, 1991 did not help the Court to decide whether it was intended to apply to claims predating the Act. But here, where the entirety of the new IIRIRA applies generally to the petitioner - indeed, if it did not, he would not be subject to removal at all - IIRIRA's complex provisions governing its effective dates are squarely relevant to determining the extent of IIRIRA's application as to him. In my view, these provisions plainly provide that petitioner is not entitled to § 212(c) relief.
The 1990 amendment limited the relief afforded by § 212(c)'s waiver of deportation byexcluding aggravated felons who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment of at least five years. In holding that the 1990 amendment did not have a retroactive effect, the Ninth Circuit persuasively held that " [c]ongressional repeal of a discretionary power to relieve an alien from deportation does not attach any new legal consequences to the pre-enactment events." Samaniego-Meraz v. INS, 53 F.3d 254, 256 (9th Cir. 1995). As in the present case, "the consequences of petitioner's criminal conduct were clear at the time of that conduct and they remain unchanged today. He was subject to possible criminal sanctions and deportation." Scheidemann v. INS, 83 F.3d 1517, 1523 (3d Cir. 1996). "In general, the concern regarding retroactive application of statutes is the deprivation of rights without notice and fair warning; such concerns are not present in this case. . . . In this case, Congress did not attach additional consequences [to past criminal activity] but merely withdrew a previously available form of discretionary relief." Id. (quoting De Osorio v. INS, 10 F.3d 1034, 1042 (4th Cir. 1993)) (alterations in original). True retroactivity would occur if IIRIRA revoked § 212(c) relief from those who had received it prior to IIRIRA's effective date. IIRIRA § 304(b), like the 1990 amendment, "is not made retroactive merely because it applies to convictions for aggravated felonies before that time. The past aggravated felony conviction is only the prerequisite for the prospective denial of discretionary relief." De Osorio, 10 F.3d at 1042.
INA § 237(a) (2) (B) (i) provides that "Any alien who at any time after admission has been convicted of a violation of (or a conspiracy or attempt to violate) any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance . . . other than a single offense involving [a small amount of marijuana for one's own use] is deportable."; INA § 237(a) (2) (A) (iii) provides that "Any alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after admission is deportable."; INA § 101(a) (43), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(43) defines "aggravated felony" to include illicit trafficking in a controlled substance.
This was by no means Congress's first attempt to narrow a criminal alien's eligibility for a waiver from deportation. Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 and made conviction of an aggravated felony an additional ground for deportation. See Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 § 7344, 102 Stat. at 4470-71 (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a) (2) (A) (iii) (1996)). In 1990, Congress amended § 212(c) and precluded waiver for aliens convicted of aggravated felonies who had served at least five years in prison for the conviction. See Immigration Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-649, § 511(a), 104 Stat. 4978, 5052 (1990), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c). Also in 1990, Congress expanded the definition of aggravated felony to include more offenses and render a greater number of criminal aliens ineligible for discretionary relief. See id. § 501, 104 Stat. at 5048. Again, in 1994, Congress expanded the definition of aggravated felony to include more classes of crimes. See Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-416 § 222(a), 108 Stat. 4305, 4322 (1994), codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a) (43).