Opinion ID: 65013
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Excusing Exhaustion

Text: Alternatively, Omari asks this court to excuse his failure to exhaust. He first suggests that our jurisdiction over legal and constitutional issues in the immigration context necessarily extends to the issues he now raises on appeal. Omari also attempts to invoke purported exceptions to § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement. Finally, Omari suggests that equity warrants excusing his failure to exhaust. We find each of these claims unavailing. Omari first asserts that this court has jurisdiction over issues concerning his removability because review of the BIA's decision includes review of all factual and legal conclusions on which the order is contingent, including the asserted grounds for deportation. But this cannot be correct, for such an interpretation of our jurisdiction would nullify § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement. That is, inherent jurisdiction over all legal issues underlying a BIA order would mean that a party's failure to exhaust these issues before the BIA would never bar this court from addressing them. Omari's suggestion of plenary and unconstrained appellate review in this court simply cannot coexist with § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement. And as Congress did not give us a general grant of jurisdiction over immigration appealsmuch less the suggested plenary reviewthe fact that issues of Omari's removability underlie the BIA's order in no way excuses the necessity of exhaustion. Omari's invocation of purported exceptions to § 1252(d) is similarly inapposite. Granted, we have sometimes spoken of exceptions to § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement. In Goonsuwan, for example, we stated, Even when exhaustion is a jurisdictional bar, this Court recognizes an exception `when administrative remedies are inadequate.' 252 F.3d at 389 (quoting Ramirez-Osorio v. INS, 745 F.2d 937, 939 (5th Cir.1984)). Later cases have emphasized, however, that for a remedy to be available as of right and thus fall under § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement, the BIA must have adequate mechanisms to address and remedy the claim. See, e.g., Toledo-Hernandez, 521 F.3d at 334; Arce-Vences, 512 F.3d at 172. These exceptions to § 1252(d), then, are more appropriately characterized as situations in which § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement does not even apply because the particular relief is not available as of right. This construction of § 1252(d) indicates that all of the issues Omari now raises fall squarely within its exhaustion requirement. The BIA had adequate mechanisms to address and remedy all of these issues. Moreover, Omari had a full and fair opportunity to present each of these issues to the BIA before raising them in his present petition. And there is no evidence of bias against Omari nor any indication that the BIA would not have fairly considered his claims. In short, Omari could have made all of his present arguments to the BIA before petitioning this court for review. He did not, and his failure to do so is a failure to exhaust. Finally, Omari has given us no reason to equitably excuse the exhaustion requirement. His failure to exhaust was not due to any third party's conduct or external circumstance. It was instead solely of his own doing, and none of our prior decisions would mandate excusing his failure to exhaust. In any event, we lack the authority to fashion a general equitable exception to § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement. In its recent decision in Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205, 127 S.Ct. 2360, 2364-66, 168 L.Ed.2d 96 (2007), the Supreme Court emphasized that there is a distinction between preconditions to appeal that are simply mandatory and those that are mandatory and jurisdictional. The former are those created by court rule or judicial decision, while the latter stem from jurisdictional limitations that Congress has statutorily created. Id. at 2365; see also United States v. Martinez, 496 F.3d 387, 388-89 (5th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 728, 169 L.Ed.2d 568 (2007). Thus, the Bowles Court held that Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(6)'s limit on reopening the time for filing a notice of appeal was a mandatory and jurisdictional requirement because it implemented 28 U.S.C. § 2107(c). 127 S.Ct. at 2363. Failure to comply with the statutory requirement embodied in Rule 4(a)(6), then, deprives a court of jurisdiction. Id. at 2366. In line with Bowles, we have held that Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b)(1)(A)'s time limit for filing notices of appeal in criminal cases is mandatory, but not jurisdictional, because it does not effectuate a statutorily-imposed limit. Martinez, 496 F.3d at 388-89. The distinction between those requirements that are mandatory and those that are mandatory and jurisdictional is important because, according to the Bowles Court, we have no authority to create equitable exceptions to jurisdictional requirements. 127 S.Ct. at 2366. While we can invoke doctrines such as waiver or equitable excuse when a party fails to comply with judicially-created prudential preconditions to appeal, we cannot create our own exceptions to a jurisdictional bar that Congresswithin the bounds of its constitutional authorityhas explicitly set out in a statute. Three circuits have recently examined § 1252(d) in light of Bowles. In Grullon v. Mukasey, 509 F.3d 107, 114 (2d Cir.2007), cert denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 43, 172 L.Ed.2d 21 (2008), a petitioner asked the Second Circuit to excuse his failure to exhaust in light of the manifest injustice that would stem from dismissal. Though recognizing the potential merits of the petitioner's request, the court held that there was no `manifest injustice' exception to § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement after Bowles. Id. at 115. According to the Second Circuit,  Bowles broadly disclaims the authority of the federal courts to create equitable exceptions to jurisdictional requirements. Id. at 116 (quotation marks omitted). Similarly, in Bah v. Mukasey, 521 F.3d 857, 859 (8th Cir.2008), the Eighth Circuit relied on Bowles in refusing to create a futility exception to § 1252(d). And in Massis v. Mukasey, 549 F.3d 631, 640 (4th Cir.2008), the Fourth Circuit invoked Bowles in holding that there was no miscarriage of justice exception to § 1252(d). According to these circuits, courts cannot create an equitable exception to [§ 1252(d)]'s exhaustion requirement. Id. We agree, and hold that we lack the authority to equitably excuse a party's failure to satisfy § 1252(d)'s exhaustion requirement. For this court to have jurisdiction over an issue that the BIA has adequate means of addressing, a petitioner must adequately raise that issue before the BIA. So long as it remains a statutory jurisdictional bar without any allowance of exceptions, compliance with § 1252(d) is necessary. We therefore have no authority to excuse Omari's failure to exhaust. We recognize that our ruling imposes a strict exhaustion requirement on those petitioning this court to review a BIA order. We could brush off any concerns over this strictness by noting, as the Supreme Court did in Bowles, that [i]f rigorous rules like the one applied today are thought to be inequitable, Congress may authorize courts to promulgate rules that excuse compliance. 127 S.Ct. at 2367. But we think it better to suggest that such a construction makes sound jurisdictional sense. Our ruling should increase the likelihood that claims will be adequately addressed at the administrative level, rendering resort to this court unnecessary. In those cases that do come to our court, the arguments will likely be better refined in light of their presentation to and resolution by the BIA. And perhaps most importantly, today's ruling provides clear guidance to those proceeding before the BIA of the necessity of exhaustion, such that they will be able to avoid the pitfalls that prevent us from addressing the merits of the present petition.