Opinion ID: 708223
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statutory and Regulatory Authority for Summary Process

Text: 95 Barakat and Sharif applied for legalization in 1987. Section 201(a)(1) of IRCA establishes a two-step process by which illegal aliens who satisfy the eligibility requirements receive temporary resident status and then, after an additional time in the country, permanent resident status. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255a. Among other criteria, the alien must demonstrate admissibility as an immigrant. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255a(a)(4). The Attorney General must grant temporary and permanent status if the applicants satisfy the statutory criteria. 8 U.S.C. Secs. 1255a(a), (b). 96 At the time that Barakat and Sharif applied for legalization, the INS regulations required that all issues of statutory eligibility for immigration benefits, including legalization, be determined solely on the basis of information in the record disclosed to the applicant. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 103.2(b)(3)(ii) (1990); see also 8 C.F.R. Secs. 103.2(b)(3)(iii), (iv) (1990); 8 C.F.R. Sec. 242.17 (1994) (allowing use of undisclosed, classified information only for discretionary decisions). However, after a three-year delay, the INS finally issued Notices of Intent to Deny to Barakat and Sharif in March 1991, pursuant to amended regulations, effective upon publication as interim rules in January 1991, that extended the confidential use of classified information to statutory entitlement determinations. 8 C.F.R. Secs. 103.2(b)(3)(ii), (iv) (1994) (as amended). The INS claimed that the information's protection from unauthorized disclosure is required in the interests of national security, as provided in 8 C.F.R. Sec. 103.2(b)(3)(iv). 97 The Government cites section 235(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1225(c) (as amended), as authority for use of the undisclosed classified information in the legalization determination. That statute establishes the powers of INS officers to inspect aliens seeking admission or readmission, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1225(a), to temporarily detain aliens who are not entitled to enter at the port of arrival, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1225(b), and to exclude aliens on the particular finding by the Attorney General that confidential information supports that exclusion, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1225(c) (allowing summary process for exclusion). We do not, however, accept the proposition that denying a resident alien legalization is the same thing as exclusion. 98 Use of summary process in settings other than exclusion raises troubling due process concerns. See, e.g., Kwong Hai Chew, 344 U.S. 590, 73 S.Ct. 472 (barring the INS from using summary process to exclude a resident alien returning from abroad, because he was entitled to a hearing as of constitutional right). Thus, even reentering permanent resident aliens, who enjoy few rights because of the admitted power of Congress over entry into the country, are entitled to additional due process safeguards when subjected to the summary exclusion process. Rafeedie, 880 F.2d at 512, on remand, 795 F.Supp. 13, 20 (D.D.C.1992) (applying the Mathews balancing test to determine that subjecting a returning resident alien, who was accused of being a PFLP officer, to summary exclusion proceedings utilizing secret information violated due process); see also United States ex rel. Kasel de Pagliera v. Savoretti, 139 F.Supp. 143 (S.D.Fla.1956) (holding summary exclusion of returning permanent resident aliens unconstitutional). 99 The Government's attempt to distinguish Rafeedie from the case at bar on the ground that legalization is a benefit is unpersuasive. Reentry is also a benefit--one for which aliens have no constitutional entitlement. Plasencia, 459 U.S. at 32, 103 S.Ct. at 329 (an alien seeking initial admission to the United States requests a privilege). 100 This limitation of the classified information provision to the exclusion context comports with the requirement that administrative and judicial review of deportation orders be based on reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1105a(a)(4); see Whetstone v. INS, 561 F.2d 1303, 1306 (9th Cir.1977) (finding that [d]eportation on a charge not presented in the order to show cause, or at the hearing, would offend due process because record evidence must establish the basis for deportation). Because legalization decisions are reviewable under the deportation review provisions, the statutory scheme does not support use of summary process which relies on secret information as an alternative to regular hearing requirements. 101 The Government asserts, however, that under case law allowing use of undisclosed information for determinations that are statutorily unreviewable because they are delegated to the Attorney General's sole discretion, it has full statutory authority to use secret information to decide a legalization application. See Jay v. Boyd, 351 U.S. 345, 76 S.Ct. 919, 100 L.Ed. 1242 (1956). Interpreting the statutory provision for suspension of deportation, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1254, the Jay Court upheld the use of undisclosed information to inform the Attorney General's decision on the grounds that Congress explicitly delegated the decision to her unfettered discretion as an act of grace. Id. at 354, 76 S.Ct. at 924-25. The statutory provision under consideration here, in contrast, requires that the Attorney General shall adjust the alien's status if the statutory eligibility requirements are satisfied. See 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255a(a). Thus, the extension of use of confidential information to mandatory statutory provisions such as the one at issue here is not warranted by the Jay rationale. 7 102 The Government's reliance on Campos v. INS, 402 F.2d 758 (9th Cir.1968), is similarly misplaced. Dictum in that case suggests that an alien applying for legalization under the discretionary statute, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1255, is assimilated to the position of (treated as) an entering alien both in terms of eligibility criteria and in terms of procedural rights. Id. at 760. Our later cases, however, have interpreted this assimilation rule narrowly, holding that it refers to the application of eligibility criteria for admission and to differences in burden of proof. Firestone v. Howerton, 671 F.2d 317, 320 & 320 n. 5 (9th Cir.1982). Moreover, further assimilation of applicants to the position of an alien at entry would virtually eliminate the primary distinction between aliens at entry and aliens residing within the country. Therefore, although applicants for legalization must satisfy the substantive admissibility requirements, their constitutional rights, including their right to procedural due process, are not correspondingly diminished. Thus, we find that there is no statutory or regulatory basis supporting the Government's interest in use of classified information in legalization decisions pursuant to Sec. 1255a. 103