Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/554/1/opinion.html
Timestamp: 2017-03-01 18:12:00
Document Index: 494784845

Matched Legal Cases: ['§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1003', '§237', '§1227', '§1229', '§240', '§74', '§20', '§19', '§20', '§1101', '§1229', '§1003', '§1182', '§1229', '§1003', '§3', '§1229', '§1229', '§1240', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1229', '§1240', '§1240', '§1240', '§306', '§1105', '§1003']

Dada v. Mukasey (Opinion by Justice Kennedy) :: 554 U.S. 1 (2008) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
We decide in this case whether an alien who has requested and been granted voluntary departure from the United States, a form of discretionary relief that avoids certain statutory penalties, must adhere to that election and depart within the time prescribed, even if doing so causes the alien to forgo a ruling on a pending, unresolved motion to reopen the removal proceedings. The case turns upon the interaction of relevant provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, 110 Stat. 3009–546 (IIRIRA or Act). The Act provides that every alien ordered removed from the United States has a right to file one motion to reopen his or her removal proceedings. See 8 U. S. C. §1229a(c)(7) (2000 ed., Supp. V). The statute also provides, however, that if the alien’s request for voluntary departure is granted after he or she is found removable, the alien is required to depart within the period prescribed by immigration officials, which cannot exceed 60 days. See §1229c(b)(2) (2000 ed.). Failure to depart within the prescribed period renders the alien ineligible for certain forms of relief, including adjustment of status, for a period of 10 years. §1229c(d)(1) (2000 ed., Supp. V). Pursuant to regulation, however, departure has the effect of withdrawing the motion to reopen. See 8 CFR §1003.2(d) (2007).
In 2004, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charged petitioner with being removable under §237(a)(1)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 66 Stat. 201, as amended, 8 U. S. C. §1227(a)(1)(B) (2000 ed., Supp. V), for overstaying his visa. Petitioner’s wife then filed a second I–130 petition. The Immigration Judge (IJ) denied petitioner’s request for a continuance pending adjudication of the newly filed I–130 petition and noted that those petitions take an average of about three years to process. The IJ found petitioner to be removable but granted the request for voluntary departure under §1229c(b) (2000 ed.). The BIA affirmed on November 4, 2005, without a written opinion. It ordered petitioner to depart within 30 days or suffer statutory penalties, including a civil fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $5,000 and ineligibility for relief under §§240A, 240B, 245, 248, and 249 of the INA for a period of 10 years. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 5–6.
The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. Dada v. Gonzales, 207 Fed. Appx. 425 (2006) (per curiam). Relying on its decision in Banda-Ortiz v. Gonzales, 445 F. 3d 387 (2006), the court held that the BIA’s reading of the applicable statutes as rendering petitioner ineligible for relief was reasonable. The Fifth Circuit joined the First and Fourth Circuits in concluding that there is no automatic tolling of the voluntary departure period. See Chedad v. Gonzales, 497 F. 3d 57 (CA1 2007); Dekoladenu v. Gonzales, 459 F. 3d 500 (CA4 2006). Four other Courts of Appeals have reached the opposite conclusion. See, e.g., Kanivets v. Gonzales, 424 F. 3d 330 (CA3 2005); Sidikhouya v. Gonzales, 407 F. 3d 950 (CA8 2005); Azarte v. Ashcroft, 394 F. 3d 1278 (CA9 2005); Ugokwe v. United States Atty. Gen., 453 F. 3d 1325 (CA11 2006).
Voluntary departure was “originally developed by administrative officers, in the absence of a specific mandate in the statute.” 6 C. Gordon, S. Mailman, & S. Yale-Loehr, Immigration Law and Procedure §74.02[1], p. 74–15 (rev. ed. 2007) (hereinafter Gordon). The practice was first codified in the Alien Registration Act of 1940, §20, 54 Stat. 671. The Alien Registration Act amended §19 of the Immigration Act of Feb. 5, 1917, 39 Stat. 889, to provide that an alien “deportable under any law of the United States and who has proved good moral character for the preceding five years” may be permitted by the Attorney General to “depart the United States to any country of his choice at his own expense, in lieu of deportation.” §20(c), 54 Stat. 672.
The voluntary departure period typically does not begin to run until administrative appeals are concluded. See 8 U. S. C. §1101(47)(B) (“The order … shall become final upon the earlier of—(i) a determination by the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming such order; or (ii) the expiration of the period in which the alien is permitted to seek review of such order by the Board of Immigration Appeals”); §1229c(b)(1) (Attorney General may permit voluntary departure at conclusion of removal proceedings); see also 8 CFR §1003.6(a) (2007) (“[T]he decision in any proceeding … from which an appeal to the Board may be taken shall not be executed during the time allowed for the filing of an appeal … ”). In addition some Federal Courts of Appeals have found that they may stay voluntary departure pending consideration of a petition for review on the merits. See, e.g., Thapa v. Gonzales, 460 F. 3d 323, 329–332 (CA2 2006); Obale v. Attorney General of United States, 453 F. 3d 151, 155–157 (CA3 2006). But see Ngarurih v. Ashcroft, 371 F. 3d 182, 194 (CA4 2004). This issue is not presented here, however, and we leave its resolution for another day.
(A)(ii) (“Any alien not described in clause (i) who—(I) has been ordered removed under section [240] or any other provision of law, or (II) departed the United States while an order of removal was outstanding, and who seeks admission within 10 years of the date of such alien’s departure or removal … is inadmissible”). An alien who makes a timely departure under a grant of voluntary departure, on the other hand, is not subject to these restrictions—although he or she otherwise may be ineligible for readmission based, for instance, on an earlier unlawful presence in the United States, see §1182(a)(9)(B)(i).
To qualify as “new,” §1229a(c)(7)(B), the facts must be “material” and of the sort that “could not have been discovered or presented at the former hearing,” 8 CFR §1003.2(c)(1) (2007); 1 Gordon §3.05[8][c] (“Evidence is not previously unavailable merely because the movant chose not to testify or to present evidence earlier, or because the IJ refused to admit the evidence”). There are narrow exceptions to the 90-day filing period for asylum proceedings and claims of battered spouses, children, and parents, see 8 U. S. C. §§1229a(c)(7)(C)(ii), (iv) (2000 ed., Supp. V), which are not applicable here.
To be sure, 8 U. S. C. §1229c(b)(2) contains no ambiguity: The period within which the alien may depart voluntarily “shall not be valid for a period exceeding 60 days.” See also 8 CFR §1240.26(f) (2007) (“In no event can the total period of time, including any extension, exceed” the statutory periods prescribed by 8 U. S. C. §1229c(a) and §1229c(b)); §1229c(d) (2000 ed. and Supp. V) (imposing statutory penalties for failure to depart). Further, §1229a(c)(7) does not forbid a scheme under which an alien knowingly relinquishes the right to seek reopening in exchange for other benefits, including those available to the alien under the voluntary departure statute. That does not describe this case, however. Nothing in the statutes or past usage with respect to voluntary departure or motions to reopen indicates they cannot coexist. Neither §1229a(c)(7) nor §1229c(b)(2) says anything about the filing of a motion to reopen by an alien who has requested and been granted the opportunity to voluntarily depart. And there is no other statutory language that would place the alien on notice of an inability to seek the case’s reopening in the event of newly discovered evidence or changed circumstances bearing upon eligibility for relief. In reading a statute we must not “look merely to a particular clause,” but consider “in connection with it the whole statute.” Kokoszka v. Belford, 417 U. S. 642, 650 (1974) (quoting Brown v. Duchesne, 19 How. 183, 194 (1857); internal quotation marks omitted); see also Gozlon-Peretz v. United States, 498 U. S. 395, 407 (1991) (“ ‘In determining the meaning of the statute, we look not only to the particular statutory language, but to the design of the statute as a whole and to its object and policy’ ” (quoting Crandon v. United States, 494 U. S. 152, 158 (1990))); United States v. Heirs of Boisdoré, 8 How. 113, 122 (1850) (“[W]e must not be guided by a single sentence or member of a sentence, but look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy”). Reading the Act as a whole, and considering the statutory scheme governing voluntary departure alongside the statutory right granted to the alien by 8 U. S. C. §1229a(c)(7)(A) (2000 ed., Supp. V) to pursue “one motion to reopen proceedings,” the Government’s position that the alien is not entitled to pursue a motion to reopen if the alien agrees to voluntarily depart is unsustainable. It would render the statutory right to seek reopening a nullity in most cases of voluntary departure. (And this group is not insignificant in number; between 2002 and 2006, 897,267 aliens were found removable, of which 122,866, or approximately 13.7%, were granted voluntary departure. See DOJ, Executive Office for Immigration Review, FY 2006 Statistical Year Book, at Q 1 (Feb. 2007).) It is foreseeable, and quite likely, that the time allowed for voluntary departure will expire long before the BIA issues a decision on a timely filed motion to reopen. See Proposed Rules, DOJ, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Voluntary Departure: Effect of a Motion to Reopen or Reconsider or a Petition for Review, 72 Fed. Reg. 67674, 67677, and n. 2 (2007) (“As a practical matter, it is often the case that an immigration judge or the Board cannot reasonably be expected to adjudicate a motion to reopen or reconsider during the voluntary departure period”). These practical limitations must be taken into account. In the present case the BIA denied petitioner’s motion to reopen 68 days after he filed the motion—and 66 days after his voluntary departure period had expired. Although the record contains no statistics on the average disposition time for motions to reopen, the number of BIA proceedings has increased over the last two decades, doubling between 1992 and 2000 alone; and, as a result, the BIA’s backlog has more than tripled, resulting in a total of 63,763 undecided cases in 2000. See Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Study Conducted for: the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice and Pro Bono Re: Board of Immigration Appeals: Procedural Reforms to Improve Case Management 13 (2003), online at http://www.dorsey.
The purpose of a motion to reopen is to ensure a proper and lawful disposition. We must be reluctant to assume that the voluntary departure statute was designed to remove this important safeguard for the distinct class of deportable aliens most favored by the same law. See 8 U. S. C. §§1229c(a)(1), (b)(1)(C) (barring aliens who have committed, inter alia, aggravated felonies or terrorism offenses from receiving voluntary departure); §1229c(b)(1)(B) (requiring an alien who obtains voluntary departure at the conclusion of removal proceedings to demonstrate “good moral character”). This is particularly so when the plain text of the statute reveals no such limitation. See Costello v. INS, 376 U. S. 120, 127–128 (1964) (counseling long hesitation “before adopting a construction of [the statute] which would, with respect to an entire class of aliens, completely nullify a procedure so intrinsic a part of the legislative scheme”); see also Stone v. INS, 514 U. S. 386, 399 (1995) (“Congress might not have wished to impose on the alien” the difficult choice created by treating a motion to reopen as rendering the underlying order nonfinal for purposes of judicial review); INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U. S. 289, 320 (2001) (recognizing “ ‘the longstanding principle of construing any lingering ambiguities in deportation statutes in favor of the alien’ ” (quoting INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S. 421, 449 (1987))).
Some solutions, though, do not conform to the statutory design. Petitioner, as noted, proposes automatic tolling of the voluntary departure period during the pendency of the motion to reopen. We do not find statutory authority for this result. Voluntary departure is an agreed-upon exchange of benefits, much like a settlement agreement. In return for anticipated benefits, including the possibility of readmission, an alien who requests voluntary departure represents that he or she “has the means to depart the United States and intends to do so” promptly. 8 U. S. C. §1229c(b)(1)(D); 8 CFR §§1240.26(c)(1)–(2) (2007); cf. §1240.26(c)(3) (the judge may impose additional conditions to “ensure the alien’s timely departure from the United States”). Included among the substantive burdens imposed upon the alien when selecting voluntary departure is the obligation to arrange for departure, and actually depart, within the 60-day period. Cf. United States v. Brockamp, 519 U. S. 347, 352 (1997) (substantive limitations are not subject to equitable tolling). If the alien is permitted to stay in the United States past the departure date to wait out the adjudication of the motion to reopen, he or she cannot then demand the full benefits of voluntary departure; for the benefit to the Government—a prompt and costless departure—would be lost. Furthermore, it would invite abuse by aliens who wish to stay in the country but whose cases are not likely to be reopened by immigration authorities.
The DOJ, which has authority to adopt regulations relevant to the issue at hand, has made a preliminary determination that the Act permits an alien to withdraw an application for voluntary departure before expiration of the departure period. According to this proposal, there is nothing in the Act or the implementing regulations that makes the grant of voluntary departure irrevocable. See 72 Fed. Reg. 67679. Accordingly, the DOJ has proposed an amendment to 8 CFR §1240.26 that, prospectively, would “provide for the automatic termination of a grant of voluntary departure upon the timely filing of a motion to reopen or reconsider, as long as the motion is filed prior to the expiration of the voluntary departure period.” 72 Fed. Reg. 67679, Part IV–D; cf. id., at 67682, Part VI (“The provisions of this proposed rule will be applied prospectively only, that is, only with respect to immigration judge orders issued on or after the effective date of the final rule that grant a period of voluntary departure”). Although not binding in the present case, the DOJ’s proposed interpretation of the statutory and regulatory scheme as allowing an alien to withdraw from a voluntary departure agreement “warrants respectful consideration.” Wisconsin Dept. of Health and Family Servs. v. Blumer, 534 U. S. 473, 497 (2002) (citing United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U. S. 218 (2001), and Thomas Jefferson Univ. v. Shalala, 512 U. S. 504 (1994)).
A more expeditious solution to the untenable conflict between the voluntary departure scheme and the motion to reopen might be to permit an alien who has departed the United States to pursue a motion to reopen postdeparture, much as Congress has permitted with respect to judicial review of a removal order. See IIRIRA §306(b), 110 Stat. 3009–612 (repealing 8 U. S. C. §1105a(c) (1994 ed.), which prohibited an alien who “departed from the United States after the issuance of the order” to seek judicial review). As noted previously, 8 CFR §1003.2(d) provides that the alien’s departure constitutes withdrawal of the motion to reopen. This regulation, however, has not been challenged in these proceedings, and we do not consider it here.