Opinion ID: 2960137
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: We set out only those portions of the history of this case that are relevant to understanding the issue before us. Grant was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident in May 1978. On May 20, 1996, a New York court convicted Grant of murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon, and other offenses. On May 5, 2000, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service placed Grant in removal proceedings by service of a notice to appear charging that (1) he had been convicted of an aggravated felony and 1 The BIA did not reach this issue because it found that the fact Grant’s father never had legal custody meant Grant could not derive citizenship from his father. We believe that the BIA’s approach creates a more difficult constitutional problem than simply addressing the constitutionality of the gender distinction embodied in the legitimation requirement and therefore directly confront that issue. 2 was therefore removable pursuant to Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) § 237(a)(2)(A)(iii), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii), and (2) he had been convicted of possession of a weapon that was a firearm and was therefore removable under INA § 237(a)(2)(C), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(C). At his first appearance before IJ Levinsky in August 2000, Grant claimed that he had obtained derivative citizenship through his father. The IJ adjourned the hearing three times to allow Grant to obtain an attorney and evidence of derivative citizenship. During a November 2000 appearance, Grant admitted the charges in the notice to appear. Grant also informed the IJ that his parents were never married, his mother became a citizen after Grant turned eighteen, and his father became a citizen before Grant’s eighteenth birthday. On his final hearing date, January 11, 2001, Grant produced affidavits from his father and mother in which they indicated that Grant’s father had played an active part in Grant’s life, provided some financial support to Grant, and visited him frequently. However, Grant testified that his father did not have legal custody. In an oral decision, the IJ held that (1) Grant was deportable as charged; (2) he was not eligible for relief under INA § 212(c), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c) (repealed 1996), and INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289 (2001), because, even though his conviction occurred before the repeal of Section 212(c), Grant, unlike the respondent in St. Cyr, had been convicted by a jury; (3) Grant could not apply for adjustment of status because his murder conviction rendered him ineligible for a waiver of inadmissibility pursuant to INA § 212(h), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(h); (4) Grant was also ineligible for Section 212(c) relief because he had served more than five years’ imprisonment; and (5) Grant had not attained derivative citizenship from his father because his father never had legal custody. On appeal to the BIA, Grant argued inter alia that he had obtained derivative citizenship from his father. Incident to this argument, he contended that Section 1432(a) was unconstitutional 3 insofar as it allowed an alien to obtain derivative citizenship through his mother without proof of maternity but did not make the same path to citizenship available to alien children of naturalized fathers. As to Grant’s claim of derivative citizenship, the BIA held that “[i]n order for a child to derive United States citizenship . . . , proof is required that the naturalized parent retained legal custody of the child,” and Grant had failed to demonstrate that his father had had legal custody. Because the Board’s decision was premised on the custody requirement, it declined to reach the constitutionality of the gender distinction embodied in former Section 1432(a). In addition, the BIA rejected each of the additional bases on which Grant sought relief from removal. In July 2001, Grant filed a habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. On June 14, 2004, Magistrate Judge David E. Peebles recommended that the petition be denied. Before the district court could act on the recommendation, Congress enacted the REAL ID Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-13, Div. B.,119 Stat. 231, 302. Section 106(a) of the REAL ID Act provides that a petition for review to the court of appeals is the exclusive method for challenging an administrative order of removal, deportation, or exclusion, and Section 106(c) provides that any petitions pending in district court must be transferred to the appropriate court of appeals. 119 Stat. at 310-11, 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a) & note. Accordingly, the district court transferred Grant’s petition to this court.