Opinion ID: 787319
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: This Court's Authority to Reinstate Voluntary Departure

Text: 19 Harchenko alternatively asks this court to reinstate voluntary departure. He argues that we are empowered to do so in his case because the INS and the BIA both declined to extend or reinstate voluntary departure in order to punish him for seeking access to this court. 20 This circuit has never before addressed the circumstances under which we may reinstate voluntary departure in cases that are pre-IIRIRA and governed by the transitional rules. Before adoption of the IIRIRA, the courts of appeals were divided on the issue of whether and under what circumstances they had the authority to reinstate voluntary departure. 2 The Ninth Circuit held that once voluntary departure was granted by the BIA, the privilege remain[ed] in effect throughout the period of [judicial] review and for whatever additional period the [Board] afforded the alien in the order under review. Contreras-Aragon, 852 F.2d at 1092. 3 The First and Fourth Circuits took a more moderate position, retaining some authority over reinstatement or extension of voluntary departure while at the same time acknowledging that the decision to reinstate or extend voluntary departures should usually be left to the discretion of the District Director, who is better suited to consider the factual prerequisites.... Ramsay v. INS, 14 F.3d 206, 213 (4th Cir.1994); see also Umanzor-Alvarado v. INS, 896 F.2d 14, 16 (1st Cir.1990). These courts were concerned that under the Ninth Circuit's original approach, a court might reinstate voluntary departure even though, in the interim period between the BIA's and court of appeals' decisions, the alien may have committed acts which would preclude him from eligibility for voluntary departure.... Ramsay, 14 F.3d at 213. They agreed that courts of appeals have the authority to reinstate voluntary departure, but only when (1) the INS is wielding its discretion to withhold voluntary departure to deter applicants from seeking judicial review of BIA decisions, or (2) the [INS] does not suggest it will present the district director with any other reason for refusing the reinstatement. Id. (quotations omitted) (emphasis and alteration in original). By contrast, four circuits held, prior to the IIRIRA, that the statutory and regulatory language vesting authority to reinstate voluntary departure solely within the discretion of the Attorney General deprived federal courts of jurisdiction to reinstate the voluntary departure period. See Nkacoang v. INS, 83 F.3d 353, 355 (11th Cir.1996); Castaneda v. INS, 23 F.3d 1576, 1580 (10th Cir.1994); Alsheweikh v. INS, 990 F.2d 1025, 1027 (8th Cir.1993); Kaczmarczyk v. INS, 933 F.2d 588, 598 (7th Cir.1991). These circuits take the better approach. 21 Two primary concerns motivated courts that concluded they had the authority to reinstate voluntary departure pre-IIRIRA: (1) access to appellate review, and (2) judicial and administrative economy. Castaneda, 23 F.3d at 1581. These courts were concerned that, because the usual thirty-day departure period permitted by the Board obviously cannot cover the time expended by a petition for review, voluntary departure is, in effect, conditioned on a waiver of judicial review with respect to the underlying deportation order. Id. In short, they saw the legislative and regulatory scheme as presenting aliens with a difficult choice: either elect to depart voluntarily and abandon any opportunity to overturn the deportation order, or choose to challenge the order and thereby forgo the benefits of voluntary departure. Ramsay, 14 F.3d at 211-12. However, as the court in Castaneda noted, a alien ordered deported does not lose something when offered the additional opportunity to depart voluntarily. On the contrary, he retains precisely the same right to judicial review he would otherwise have had; it is only that his alternative to continued litigation has been made more attractive. 23 F.3d at 1582. Furthermore, the choice is not as dire as the First and Fourth Circuits predict. For example, in this case, Harchenko could have requested an extension of the voluntary departure period from the district director, but he failed to do so. He was placed on notice of this option and of the consequences for failing to do so in both the IJ's and the BIA's initial decisions denying his request for asylum. Having failed to follow this procedure, Harchenko should not now be allowed to obtain relief he was offered earlier but declined to accept. 22 The other rationale offered by courts that have assumed the authority to reinstate voluntary departure is a concern for judicial economy, but this concern is similarly misplaced. In Umanzor-Alvarado, the First Circuit noted that if the government does not suggest it will present the district director with any other reason for refusing reinstatement[,]... to require the petitioner to [then] apply to the district director to pass upon the matter would be pointless, for the director could not lawfully refuse reinstatement. 896 F.2d at 16. This reasoning reflects both misplacement of the burden of persuasion and application of the wrong standard for the district director's decision. Castaneda, 23 F.3d at 1582. The district director has discretion to grant voluntary departure. It is not legally mandated. [E]ven if the alien has not done anything to render [himself] legally ineligible for reinstatement or extension of voluntary departure, the district director always retains discretion to grant or deny the privilege. Id. 23 Finally, it is worth noting the circumstances of Harchenko's appeal in this case. This is not a situation where an alien is appealing the initial denial of his asylum application and asking this court to reinstate the grant of voluntary departure in the event that it decides to affirm the BIA. Nor is it a case where a petitioner has filed a motion seeking to stay voluntary departure pending adjudication of his initial appeal. See Nwakanma v. Ashcroft, 352 F.3d 325, 327-28 (6th Cir.2003). In this case, Harchenko filed an untimely motion to reopen and alternatively requested reinstatement of his earlier grant of voluntary departure. It does not appear that he requested this form of relief in his initial appeal to this court. Instead, he chose to file an untimely motion to reopen. Harchenko has cited no authority for the proposition that this court may reinstate his period of voluntary departure in the absence of a timely-filed motion to reopen. If the BIA lacks the authority to reinstate voluntary departure when the proceedings have not been reopened, then surely this court does as well.