Opinion ID: 21687
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Florentina Cardoso

Text: Regardless of how she describes her claim, Florentina Cardoso undeniably seeks to prevent the Attorney General from executing a removal order. Cardoso is currently subject to a removal order entered in absentia and seeks an adjustment in status so that she may avoid that order. Indeed, in her complaint Cardoso, like the other Plaintiffs, explains that she seeks to compel the Attorney General to “allow [her] to remain in the United States.” In Alvidres-Reyes v. Reno, 180 F.3d 199 (5th Cir. 1999), this Court declined to find jurisdiction under similar circumstances. In that case, fifty illegal aliens residing in the United States, only one of whom was currently in deportation proceedings, brought a suit for mandamus, injunctive, and declaratory relief seeking to compel the Attorney General to consider their applications for suspension of deportation under a now-repealed provision of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Id. at 201. This Court held that section 1252(g) deprived the district court of jurisdiction to hear the case. We explained that although the plaintiffs did “not explicitly pray for the court to order the Attorney General to initiate proceedings or adjudicate their deportability,” if successful, plaintiffs’ suit would nevertheless “compel the Attorney General to do so in order to consider their applications for suspension of deportation.” Id. at 205. 9 Similarly, if Cardoso prevails in the instant action, her suit would preclude the Attorney General from executing an outstanding removal order against her. Moreover, Cardoso and the other Plaintiffs in this action, unlike the plaintiffs in Alvidres-Reyes, explicitly seek to enjoin the Attorney General from removing them from the United States. Although the Supreme Court’s decision in American-Arab narrowly construed the reach of section 1252(g), nothing in that decision permits aliens to make an end-run around the terms of the statute by simply characterizing their complaint as a challenge to a denial of adjustment of status, rather than a challenge to the execution of a removal order. Cf. Ray v. Reno, 3 F.Supp.2d 1249, 1251 (D. Utah 1998)(holding that section 1252(g) deprived the court of jurisdiction to enjoin the Attorney General from executing a removal order so that defendant could seek an adjustment of status). To permit such challenges would “lead to the deconstruction, fragmentation, and hence prolongation of removal proceedings at which the Supreme Court concluded that § 1252(g) is directed.” Alvidres-Reyes, 180 F.3d at 205. This is not to say that section 1252(g) insulates the Attorney General from any challenge that may prevent her from ultimately executing removal orders. As the Supreme Court noted in AmericanArab, section 1252(g) does not prevent plaintiffs from challenging “other decisions or actions that may be a part of the deportation process - such as the decisions to open an investigation, surveil 10 the suspected violator . . ., or refuse reconsideration of a [removal] order.” American-Arab, 525 U.S. at 482. Similarly, this Court has recognized that section 1252(g) does not bar courts from reviewing an alien detention order, because such an order, “while intimately related to efforts to deport, is not itself a decision to ‘execute removal orders’ and thus does not implicate section 1252(g).” Zadvydas v. Underdown, 185 F.3d 279, 285 (5th Cir. 1999). See also Requena-Rodriguez v. Pasquarell, 190 F.3d 299, 303-304 (5th Cir. 1999)(holding that 1252(g) does not preclude challenge to final deportation order); Paunescu v. INS, 76 F. Supp.2d 896, 899 (N.D. Ill. 1999)(holding that 1252(g) does not apply where plaintiffs’ claims do not “involve any of the ‘specific steps in the deportation process’”). In this case, however, Cardoso does not simply challenge the Attorney General’s ability to take steps toward removal, such as opening an investigation or surveilling a suspect. Nor does Cardoso merely challenge a decision that, although intimately related to the execution of a removal order, does not implicate the actual execution of such an order. Instead, Cardoso seeks an injunction commanding the Attorney General to adjust her immigration status and precluding the Attorney General from executing pending removal orders. Section 1252(g) precludes us from considering such a claim. Cf. Sabhari v. Reno, 197 F.3d 938, 942 (8th Cir. 1999)(holding that where plaintiff’s petition for adjustment of status was “separate and distinct from any matter 11 related to an order of deportation,” 1252(g) did not preclude jurisdiction). As we explained in Alvidres-Reyes, “the Congressional aim of § 1252(g) is to protect from judicial intervention the Attorney General’s long-established discretion to decide whether and when to prosecute or adjudicate removal proceedings or to execute removal orders.” Id. at 201. Accordingly, the district court did not err in declining to exercise jurisdiction over Cardoso’s complaint.