Opinion ID: 2959908
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Relevant Statutory Texts

Text: The law is well established that statutory construction begins with text because if the language of a statute is “unambiguous,” no further inquiry is required. Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., 519 U.S. 337, 340-41 (1997); accord Mizrahi v. Gonzales, 492 F.3d at 158 (collecting cases). The texts relevant to our analysis fall into three categories: statutes (a) providing for the deportation of aggravated felons, (b) affording relief from deportation on the recommendation of a sentencing judge, and (c) defining “aggravated felonies.” a. Statutory Provisions for the Deportation of Aggravated Felons The INS sought to deport Nguyen on the ground that he was an aggravated felon pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). That section states that “[a]ny alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after admission is deportable.” Id. For purposes of our review, it is important to note that this section is effectively a recodification of 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4)(B) (1988), see Bell v. Reno, 218 F.3d 86, 88 (2d Cir. 2000) (discussing statutory pedigree), which in turn is the section referenced in the JRAD statute to define the scope of its protection, see 8 U.S.C. § 1251(b)(2). See infra at [11]. Congress first identified an aggravated felony conviction as a ground for deportation 9 in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-690, 102 Stat. 4181. The relevant provision in effect at the time Nguyen’s JRAD was entered, read as follows: Any alien in the United States . . . shall, upon the order of the Attorney General, be deported who . . . [(A)] is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years after entry and either sentenced to confinement or confined therefor in a prison or corrective institution, for a year or more, or who at any time after entry is convicted of two crimes involving moral turpitude, not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct, regardless of whether confined therefor and regardless of whether the convictions were in a single trial; or . . . (B) is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after entry. 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4) (1988) (emphasis added). In 1990, IMMACT redesignated § 1251(a)(2)(B), without change, as 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(2)(A)(iii) (Supp. II 1990). 6 See 104 Stat. at 5080. Then, in 1996, IIRIRA § 305(a)(2), 110 Stat. at 3009-597-98, again redesignated the aggravated felony provision as 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). In doing so, Congress made a single change to the statutory text, substituting the word “admission” for the word “entry.” Compare 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4)(B) (1988) and id. § 1251(a)(2)(A)(iii) (Supp. II 1990) with id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) (Supp. II 1996).7 6 Section 1251(a)(2)(A)(iii) read: “Any alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after entry is deportable.” 7 This change was part of the new terminology endorsed by IIRIRA. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(13)(A) (defining terms “admission” and “admitted” as “the lawful entry of the alien into the United States”). 10 As this statutory development makes plain, since 1988 and through various recodifications, Congress has consistently identified an alien’s conviction for an aggravated felony as a ground for deportation. b. The JRAD Statute Until 1990, the INA afforded aliens who received judicial recommendations against deportation an important exception to removal. This JRAD statute stated: The provisions of subsection (a)(4) of this section respecting the deportation of an alien convicted of a crime or crimes shall not apply . . . if the court sentencing such alien for such crime shall make, at the time of first imposing judgment or passing sentence, or within thirty days thereafter, a recommendation to the Attorney General that such alien shall not be deported, due notice having been given prior to making such recommendation to the representatives of the interested State, the Service, and prosecution authorities, who shall be granted an opportunity to make representations in the matter. 8 U.S.C. § 1251(b)(2) (1988) (repealed 1990). At the time of Nguyen’s conviction, the referenced “provisions of subsection (a)(4),” as noted earlier, identified two grounds rendering an alien deportable: a conviction for a crime of moral turpitude and a conviction for an aggravated felony. See id. § 1251(a)(4) (1988). Section 1251(b)(2) makes plain that these two grounds for deportation “shall not apply” to aliens who receive JRADs. See Janvier v. United States, 793 F.2d 449, 452 (2d Cir. 1986) (construing § 1251(b)(2) to give “the sentencing judge conclusive authority to decide whether a particular conviction should be disregarded as a basis for deportation”); see also United States v. Yacoubian, 24 F.3d at 6 (recognizing that JRAD must be “‘given 11 absolute binding effect upon deportation efforts by the INS’ on the basis of [ground specified in] 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4)” (quoting United States v. Bodre, 948 F.2d 28, 34 (1st Cir. 1991))). The text is equally plain, however, that a JRAD protects against deportation only on the grounds specified in § 1251(a)(4). See United States v. Quintana, 914 F.2d 1409, 1411 (10th Cir. 1990) (“[T]he recommendation provision is applicable only to offenses described in § 1251(a)(4) and no other deportable offenses.”); Oviawe v. INS, 853 F.2d 1428, 1433 (7th Cir. 1988) (“The plain language of § 1251(b)(2) permits the judicial recommendation to bar deportation only when the deportation is based on § 1251(a)(4)” and does not bar the consideration of aggravated felony conviction “when deportation is based on another statutory provision.”). Thus, in determining the scope of Nguyen’s claimed JRAD protection, we must consider whether expansions in the INA’s definition of “aggravated felony,” particularly those enacted after the 1990 repeal of the JRAD statute, create new and distinct grounds for deportation separate from those articulated in § 1251(a)(4) and incorporated into its successor statutes. For reasons stated in the next section, we conclude that they do not. c. The Statutory Definition of “Aggravated Felony” When, in 1988, the INA first identified an alien’s aggravated felony conviction as a ground for deportation, the Act defined aggravated felony to include a relatively small class of crimes: murder, specified drug and firearms offenses, as well as conspiracies and attempts to commit such crimes. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43) (1988); Bell v. Reno, 218 F.3d at 88. 12 In 1990, IMMACT added to this list crimes of violence resulting in prison sentences of at least five years. See IMMACT § 501(a)(3), 104 Stat. at 5048 (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43) (1990)). With the 1996 enactment of IIRIRA, Congress further broadened the definition, identifying a large number of crimes as aggravated felonies, notably, for purposes of our review, rape and the sexual abuse of a minor as well as crimes of violence for which the term of imprisonment is at least one year. See IIRIRA § 321(a), 110 Stat. at 3009-627-28 (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(A) & (F) (Supp. II 1996)). Respondents urge us to view this definitional expansion as creating new grounds for deportation distinct from § 1251(a)(4) and, therefore, not shielded by Nguyen’s JRAD. Respondents’ argument is unconvincing for several reasons. First, it conflates the grounds for deportation with the definition of those grounds. The INA distinguishes between these concepts, specifying the grounds that can render an alien deportable in one statutory section and defining those grounds as generally applicable terms in another. Compare 8 U.S.C. § 1227 (listing grounds rendering an alien deportable) with id. § 1101 (providing definitions applicable to the INA, including definition for aggravated felony).8 This structure easily permits Congress to manifest its intent to create new grounds for deportation simply by adding subsections to § 1227. Accordingly, we have no reason to infer such intent from 8 The same structural distinction between the grounds for deportation and generally applicable definitions existed at the time of Nguyen’s 1989 conviction. Compare 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (1988) with id. § 1101 (1988). 13 the broadening of an established ground’s general definition. See generally Dodd v. United States, 545 U.S. 353, 357 (2005) (observing that courts presume that Congress “says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says”). Indeed, this conclusion is reinforced by the fact that, at the same time that Congress, in IIRIRA, expanded the definition of aggravated felony, it separately amended § 1227 to create a number of new grounds for deportation.9 A second and even more persuasive reason for us to reject respondents’ argument is Congress’s explicit direction to give retroactive effect to IIRIRA’s expanded definition of aggravated felony. The concluding sentence of 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43) states: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law (including any effective date), the term [aggravated felony] applies regardless of whether the conviction was entered before, on, or after September 30, 1996.” Such retroactive application hardly indicates an intent to create new grounds for deportation distinct from the aggravated felony ground first recognized in 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4). Rather, retroactive application signals Congress’s intent to have a 9 Among these is a new subsection rendering deportable any alien “convicted of a crime of domestic violence, a crime of stalking, or a crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment.” IIRIRA § 350, 110 Stat. at 3009-639-40 (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(i) (Supp. II 1996)) (emphasis added). See generally In re RodriguezRodriguez, 22 I. & N. Dec. 991, 996 (B.I.A. 1999) (noting that child abuse has been broadly defined to include “any form of cruelty to a child’s physical, moral or mental well-being” (quoting Black’s Law Dictionary 239 (6th ed. 1990))). Congress appears not to have intended this new deportation ground to apply to aliens such as Nguyen because, by its terms, it is limited “to convictions . . . occurring after the date of the enactment of this Act,” i.e., after September 30, 1996. See IIRIRA § 350(b), 110 Stat. at 3009-640. 14 single expanded definition for aggravated felony apply uniformly to all INA provisions, regardless of their effective dates. See generally Kuhali v. Reno, 266 F.3d 93, 110-11 (2d Cir. 2001) (construing IIRIRA amendments to definition of aggravated felony to apply retroactively to petitioner’s 1980 conviction); see also Bell v. Reno, 218 F.3d at 89 (construing IIRIRA amendments to apply retroactively to petitioner’s conviction for sexual abuse of a minor). In short, we conclude that the expanded definition applies equally to determining an alien’s deportability under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) and to determining the scope of JRAD protection afforded by 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4) & (b). In Nguyen’s case, this means that, just as respondents may rely on IIRIRA’s expanded definition of aggravated felony to argue petitioner’s deportability on that ground, petitioner may rely on the same definition to claim JRAD protection from deportation on that ground. Had Congress intended for “aggravated felony” to have different meanings in these two contexts, one would expect it to have stated that IIRIRA’s definitional amendments applied retroactively except to the extent such application expanded previously afforded JRAD relief. We may assume, after all, that Congress was aware of the administrative rule giving continued effect to existing JRADs when it mandated retroactive application of the expanded 1996 definition of aggravated felony. See generally Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 580-81 (1978); 1A Norman J. Singer, Statutes and Statutory Construction § 22.35, at 409-10 (6th ed. 2002). Our conclusion casts no doubt on Congress’s existing power to define what will subject an alien to removal and to enact such changes retroactively. See, e.g., INS 15 v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 325 n.55 (2001); Kuhali v. Reno, 266 F.3d at 111; United States v. Koziel, 954 F.2d at 834. Congress’s clear authority to change its mind is, nevertheless, constrained by the statutory language it employs. Because Congress placed no JRAD limit on its retroactive definition of aggravated felony, neither the BIA nor this court may do so.