Opinion ID: 2994785
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: F.R. sec. 3.2(c)(3)(i) and 8 C.F.R. sec.sec.

Text: 3.23(b)(4)(iii)(A)(1) & (2), & (D). Thus, the counting at least potentially begins with the Sanders motion, not the O’Chaney motion.) The Board did not say anything about the fact that the Sanders motion had never been considered on the merits but had been dismissed based only on procedural faults. Although we normally review such decisions by the Board only for abuse of discretion, see Nazarova v. INS, 171 F.3d 478, 482 (7th Cir. 1999); Thomas Jefferson Univ. v. Shalala, 512 U.S. 504, 512 (1994), we must also ensure that the Board’s legal interpretations stay within the boundaries permitted to it and that it has not unreasonably failed to consider relevant factual information. With this in mind, we conclude that the Board’s decision in this case cannot stand. First, the regulations themselves make it clear that the Board is not required to dismiss every motion to remand that follows an earlier motion and thus in some technical sense is a second or later motion. Apart from the special rule pertaining to in abstentia rulings, a motion with the word reopen in the label that is filed while an appeal is pending before the Board may be deemed a motion to remand for further proceedings before the Immigration Judge such that it will not be subject to the time and numerical limitations for motions to reopen. 8 C.F.R. sec. 3.2(c)(4) (emphasis added). The question is therefore how the Sanders motion should have been characterized: as a motion to remand not subject to the numerical limitations, or as a motion to reopen. We do not disagree that the INS has some discretion over the characterization process, given the fact that the text of the regulation says the Board may deem a motion one to remand, rather than it must. But the use of the word may does not suggest that the Board can sort motions by throwing them down a staircase to see where they land, or by any other similarly arbitrary method. Some motions will reflect the fact that the earlier proceeding should be viewed as still ongoing, while others will be based on something that was truly finished. A similar distinction occurs in Social Security remands, where the agency and courts draw a distinction between remands under sentence 4 of the Act (reviewable immediately as final judgments) and remands under sentence 6 (not reviewable because further fact- finding is necessary before a final judgment can be entered). 42 U.S.C. sec. 405(g). See Sullivan v. Finkelstein, 496 U.S. 617, 625-26 (1990). Here, the Board itself initially indicated that it thought it was dealing with a motion to remand, and thus the kind of motion that does not count against the applicant. The Sanders motion was unhelpfully entitled a motion to reopen and remand, but the Board’s order of November 23, 1998, specifically referred to the Sanders motion as a motion to remand. We see no reason to presume that the Board used the term carelessly, especially since its own regulations draw a legal distinction between the two kinds of motions. Although it offered no explanation, the Board well may have considered the Sanders motion as one to remand rather than to reopen precisely because it was apparent that the agency had never heard even the first detail of the merits of Chowdhury’s case. We certainly cannot say that it would have been arbitrary or unreasonable for the Board to characterize the motion as one to remand rather than reopen. What does strike us as unreasonable is the Board’s after-the-fact effort to persuade us that it really meant to be talking about a motion to reopen, notwithstanding its use of the other terminology. There are other important reasons as well to hold the Board to its initial choice of characterization, as reflected in the written record. This court has consistently held that aliens have due process rights, based in the Fifth Amendment, that apply to immigration proceedings. See, e.g., Castaneda-Suarez v. INS, 993 F.2d 142, 144 (7th Cir. 1993). Even if the Board had consistently interpreted Chowdhury’s motion as one to reopen, we would still need to review the course of proceedings--and to do so de novo--to ensure that they comported with basic due process standards. See Nazarova, 171 F.3d at 482. Just as we would construe a statute in a way that avoids a constitutional problem, if that is fairly possible, both we and the Board should interpret and apply administrative procedures in a way that avoids constitutional issues. Here, the Board knew that Chowdhury had never received a meaningful opportunity to be heard, and it knew that he at least alleged that this was through no fault of his. With the risk of a due process problem looming, the Board may--properly--have considered the Sanders motion as one to remand so that it would avoid escalating the issue to a constitutional level. Compare Nazarova, 171 F.3d at 485 (alien’s failure to receive a meaningful opportunity to be heard provided a basis to vacate in abstentia order); Romani v. INS, 146 F.3d 737, 739 (9th Cir. 1998) (same). Regulations are created to provide guidance and uniformity to an agency’s decision-making. Those regulations, however, should not be so strictly interpreted as to provide unreasonable, unfair, and absurd results. That, we fear, is what the Board is now trying to defend, particularly given the fact that the agency has actually approved his visa petition. In attempting to convince this court that Chowdhury’s situation was not completely unconscionable, counsel for the INS told us that Chowdhury still had the circuitous option of returning to Bangladesh, showing the United States consulate there his approved visa petition, and applying for a visa, which would then allow him to return. But we conclude that all that is unnecessary, because the Board’s own regulations, read reasonably, show that he is entitled to a hearing now. The soundness of interpreting the Board’s system this way can also be demonstrated by considering exactly what kind of second petition Chowdhury was trying to file. This is not the only area of the law in which repeated petitions are disfavored. The one that appears before federal courts with the greatest frequency relates to second or successive petitions for writs of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. sec. 2254 or 2255. For both of these, before a prisoner is entitled to file a successive petition, he or she must obtain the permission of the court of appeals. See 28 U.S.C. sec.sec. 2244(b)(3); 2255 para. 8. The key insight these habeas corpus cases offer is that not all petitions that are literally the second can or should be regarded as such for purposes of the second or successive petition rule. Instead, as the Supreme Court held in Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473 (2000), the phrase second or successive is a term of art. Id. at 486. If a prisoner first files an initial petition that contains some claims that have properly been exhausted in state court proceedings and others that have not, the correct disposition is to dismiss that first petition and allow the prisoner to go back and complete the exhaustion process. When he returns with the later or second petition, the Court held, that is to be considered an initial petition for purposes of the permission rule. Id. at 487. As an initial petition, its filing does not require prior authorization from the court of appeals. Similarly, if the initial petition is dismissed for a purely technical reason, such as a failure to pay a filing fee, it does not count for purposes of the successive petition permission rule. See Benton v. Washington, 106 F.3d 162 (7th Cir. 1996). This is exactly what happened to Chowdhury when the Sanders application was dismissed on purely technical grounds. In these circumstances, the fact that the Board received an initial piece of paper from Sanders need not mean that it received a legally adequate first motion to reopen. If we accept the analogy to successive petitions for habeas corpus relief, we conclude again that the Sanders paper should not count at all, Sfasciotti filed the first cognizable motion to reopen, and the Board should have considered the motion on its merits. Because the Board erred at the administrative level, we have no need to reach the question whether its action violated the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause because Chowdhury received ineffective assistance of counsel. This was a point Chowdhury stressed in his briefs, and he claimed that such a violation entitled him to go back to the point in the proceeding that was first tainted by the ineffective counsel and to start over. Although Chowdhury is correct to point out that there are cases holding that aliens have some residual protection against ineffective lawyers, based on the Fifth Amendment, see Castaneda-Suarez, 993 F.2d at 144; Mojsilovic v. INS, 156 F.3d 743, 748 (7th Cir. 1998), the extent of this protection is unclear. It is also unclear how the Fifth Amendment right contrasts with the Sixth Amendment right to legal representation, which does not apply to immigration proceedings. See Castaneda-Suarez, 993 F.2d at 144; Mantell v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, INS, 798 F.2d 124, 127 (5th Cir. 1986); Mohsseni Behbahani v. INS, 796 F.2d 249, 251 n.1 (9th Cir. 1986). Logically, one would imagine that the Fifth Amendment protects less; furthermore, in the unique case of civil immigration proceedings, we would need to consider to what extent an alien must be held accountable for his or her agent’s actions, which is the normal practice in civil cases. See, e.g., Link v. Wabash R.R. Co., 370 U.S. 626, 633-34 (1962). We save these issues for another day, when they are squarely presented.