Opinion ID: 691011
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The INS's Policy Regarding Public Cash Assistance

Text: 44 We turn first to the INS's development of its policy regarding how receipt of public cash assistance would affect an applicant's eligibility for legalization. The INS's initial regulations stated that an applicant was subject to the public charge exclusion unless the applicant demonstrates a history of employment in the United States evidencing self-support without receipt of public cash assistance. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 245a.2(d)(4) (1988). The regulations defined public cash assistance as income or needs-based monetary assistance to include, but not limited to, supplementary security income received by the alien or his or her immediate family members. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 245a.1(i). Plaintiffs argue that these regulations created a categorical rule that a family member's receipt of public cash assistance would make an alien ineligible for amnesty. The INS maintains that under these regulations, an alien might be ineligible for amnesty due to his or her family members' receipt of public assistance, but that each applicant was reviewed on a case-by-case basis and could make a showing of self-support under the regulatory special rule notwithstanding a family member's receipt of public assistance. The district court credited the INS's position, finding that there was no per se rule of automatic disqualification based on a family member's receipt of public assistance. This was a finding of fact, which we review for clear error. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a). 45 Plaintiffs dispute the district court's finding by pointing to the testimony of Richard Berryman, the INS's New York Training Coordinator, who answered affirmatively when asked whether he had trained the legalization personnel in New York and the QDEs in New York that mere receipt of public cash assistance by a United States citizen child of a legalization applicant at any time after January 1, 1982 per se rendered the parent likely to become a public charge. The INS responds that Berryman also testified that there were no clear-cut rules regarding eligibility, and that public charge waivers were available from the start of the amnesty program. The INS further argues that any misperception Berryman might have communicated was minimal since his last training session was in September, 1987 and the November, 1987 amendment to the regulatory special rule clarified that receipt of welfare by an applicant's family member was not a categorical bar to legalization. In addition, other INS trainers gave directions to the effect that the test for public charge [was] a prospective one and that it [was] only necessary to show reasonable employment which [was] current. 46 While the district court did not discuss the intricacies of this evidence, it clearly rejected plaintiffs' claim that the INS adopted a per se rule of automatic disqualification based on a family member's receipt of public assistance. Perales, 762 F.Supp. at 1065. The court specifically observed that the aliens' testimony to the contrary was generalized, amorphous, and remarkably redundant. Id. The district court found it significant that, in contrast to plaintiffs' assertion that many believed there was a per se rule of disqualification, the INS processed and approved numerous applications of aliens whose family members were receiving public assistance or who were receiving public assistance themselves. Our review of the record does not indicate that the district court's finding regarding the INS's policy was clearly erroneous. While conflicting testimony may have been presented in the lower court, we are not left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Sumner v. United States Postal Serv., 899 F.2d 203, 208 (2d Cir.1990) (internal quotations and citation omitted). 47 Further demonstrating that there was no per se rule of automatic disqualification based on a family member's receipt of public assistance were the INS's two policy statements issued during the course of the application period regarding the operation of its public charge regulations. By memorandum dated November 23, 1987, the INS Commissioner notified the agency's four regional offices that SSI received by an applicant's family member would not be attributed to the applicant, and by memorandum dated April 21, 1988, he notified the regional offices that AFDC benefits received by an applicant's family member would only be attributed to the applicant if it was her sole means of support. In our view, these policy statements represent a clarification, not a change, of the INS's overall policy. That is, both before and after the issuance of these statements, aliens who received public assistance might be ineligible for amnesty, but they could nonetheless show evidence of self-support or apply for a waiver. The policy statements merely explained in more detail when the receipt of public assistance by a family member might demonstrate the alien's likelihood of becoming a public charge. Under the clarified regulations, an alien might still be disqualified in some instances if a family member received public assistance. Thus, the issuance of these policy clarifications did not change the fact that an alien's individual circumstances, including the nature of certain public assistance awards to family members, was relevant to the determination of the alien's ability to support herself. 48 The factual finding that there was no per se rule prohibiting aliens from being granted amnesty on the basis of a family member's receipt of public assistance supports our legal conclusion that the INS's policy was broadly disseminated. Although the INS's initial regulations may have been awkwardly drafted, they placed aliens on sufficient notice of the requirements to obtain amnesty under IRCA, as required by 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255a(i), and of the rules and standards for receiving newly-created benefits, as required by the Due Process Clause. To the extent the regulations may have engendered questions regarding a particular applicant's eligibility, the alien could have submitted an application to determine her eligibility and, in the process, challenged the application of any regulation. Alternatively, the alien could have presented her inquiries to the regional INS office. Plaintiffs' argument that the INS should have pre-determined, at the point when it was promulgating its initial regulations, how the regulations would apply in their particular circumstances holds the INS to a standard of detail and precision that is simply not required either by IRCA or the Due Process Clause. 49 The INS's decision to amend the public charge regulations after the application period had passed in order to delete references to an applicant's family members is not relevant to our decision. Those amendments were made after the application period and therefore did not affect eligibility standards during the application period. Plaintiffs' procedural claims are based on the premise that the INS adopted different internal eligibility criteria than those disseminated to the alien population, thereby dissuading them from applying. Accordingly, any changes made to the criteria after the application period had ended cannot serve as the basis for plaintiffs' procedural claims. 50