Opinion ID: 204115
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reasonableness of the BIA's Interpretation

Text: If we were to conclude that the statute is ambiguous, Chevron would direct us to defer to the agency's interpretation, provided that it is based on a permissible construction of the statute. 467 U.S. at 843-44, 104 S.Ct. 2778; see also Bryson v. Shumway, 308 F.3d 79, 86-87 (1st Cir. 2002) (If Congress has not spoken on the precise question at issue, we respect the statutory interpretation of the federal administrative agency given that interpretative task, unless the interpretation is unreasonable.). We have concluded that the text of the statute is clear. Consequently, because the when released language is unambiguous, there is nothing for the agency to interpret  no gap for it to fill-and there is no justification for resorting to agency interpretation to address an ambiguity. However, even if we were to conclude that the statute were ambiguous, we could not agree that the BIA's interpretation is a reasonable one. In addition to the grammatical and logical lapses that we have discussed earlier, we have additional difficulties with the agency position. First, the agency's interpretation would treat similarly situated individuals differently on the basis of a factor not logically connected to the mandatory detention provision. An alien with a conviction identical to Mr. Saysana's who has not experienced a post-TPCR release from custody would not, the Government admits, be subject to mandatory detention. The Government's defense of this anomalous result is that it is consistent with Congress'[s] longstanding intent to detain certain criminal aliens. Appellant's Br. at 27. This explanation paints with far too broad a brush. The mandatory detention provision does not reflect a general policy in favor of detention; instead, it outlines specific, serious circumstances under which the ordinary procedures for release on bond at the discretion of the immigration judge should not apply. The non-retroactivity of the provision hardly undercuts the purposes of mandatory detention; instead, it serves important practical governmental interests in the administration of the enforcement program. [6] More importantly, finding that the when released language serves this more limited but focused purpose of preventing the return to the community of those released in connection with the enumerated offenses, as opposed to the amorphous purpose the Government advances, avoids attributing to Congress the sanctioning of the arbitrary and inconsequential factor of any post-TPCR custodial release becoming the controlling factor for mandatory detention. Even more significantly, the Board's reasoning in adopting its interpretation rests on a series of speculative conclusions. Specifically, the Board concludes that the interpretation it adopts is consistent with what it perceives to be the understanding of Congress regarding aliens such as Mr. Saysana: They are threats to persons and property in the United States who should be segregated pending a decision on removal; they are poor bail risks; they have little likelihood of relief from removal and ... therefore have little incentive to appear for their hearings ..., regardless of family and community ties. Saysana, 24 I & N Dec. at 607. The Board cites no authority that Congress's finely tuned legislative product was premised on such unsupported assumptions. Indeed, Congress was no doubt aware that, under some circumstances, aliens with criminal histories that predate the passage of IIRIRA remain eligible for forms of relief not available to aliens with more recent criminal convictions. See generally INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 326, 121 S.Ct. 2271, 150 L.Ed.2d 347 (2001) (holding that relief under INA § 212(c), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c), repealed by the 1996 amendments to the Act, remained available for certain categories of aliens with convictions obtained prior to the amendments). In addition, it is counter-intuitive to say that aliens with potentially longstanding community ties are, as a class, poor bail risks. The affected aliens are individuals who committed an offense, and were released from custody for that offense, more than a decade ago. They have continued to live in the United States. By any logic, it stands to reason that the more remote in time a conviction becomes and the more time after a conviction an individual spends in a community, the lower his bail risk is likely to be. See Garcia v. Shanahan, 615 F.Supp.2d 175, 183 (S.D.N.Y.2009) (endorsing the conclusion reached in Hy v. Gillen, 588 F.Supp.2d 122, 126 (D.Mass.2008), that the Government's reading sweeps in the group of criminal aliens most likely to qualify for a bond because only prior criminals who have been released for at least ten years are affected by the interpretation). [7] We do not dispute that Congress has determined that the specified offenses in the mandatory detention provision are of a particularly serious nature warranting greater restrictions on liberty pending removal proceedings. However, this purpose is not sensibly advanced by the Government's position, which, as we have noted, draws an arbitrary distinction between individuals who, with respect to the serious crime with which the statute concerns itself, are identical. In view of the logical leaps the Government's position entails, we must conclude that, even if the statute were ambiguous, the Government's interpretation is not reasonable.