Opinion ID: 6498328
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Arbitrary & Capricious

Text: Courts are compelled to “hold unlawful and set aside agency action[s]” that are “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” 5 U.S.C. § 706(2). While a reviewing court must not “substitute” its “own policy for that of the agency” and must apply this standard deferentially, the agency action must still “be reasonable and reasonably explained.” FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project, 141 S. Ct. 1150, 1158 (2021). This court “must set aside any action premised on reasoning that fails to account for relevant factors or evinces a clear error of judgment.” Univ. of Tex. M.D. Anderson Cancer Ctr. v. HHS, 985 F.3d 472, 475 (5th Cir. 2021) (quotation omitted). Arbitrary and capricious review “is not toothless.” Sw. Elec. Power Co. v. EPA, 920 F.3d 999, 1013 (5th Cir. 2019). “In fact, after Regents, it has serious bite.” Wages & White Lion Invs., LLC v. FDA, 16 F.4th 1130, 1136 (5th Cir. 2021). “[A]n agency’s action must be upheld, if at all, on the basis articulated by the agency itself,” not reasons 26 Case: 22-40367 Document: 00516384389 Page: 27 Date Filed: 07/06/2022 No. 22-40367 developed post hoc. Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass’n of U.S., Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 50, 103 S. Ct. 2856, 2870 (1983). DHS contends that the Considerations Memo expresses the basis for the Final Memo and is intended to supplement it. Upon examining the Considerations Memo, the district court found that DHS failed to adequately consider the high chances of recidivism and absconding within the relevant class of aliens as well as the costs or reliance interests of the States. On the other hand, DHS argues that the Considerations Memo sufficiently addresses these factors to satisfy the arbitrary/capricious standard. The Considerations Memo states that the “public safety” factors “are to be weighed in each case to assess whether a noncitizen poses a current threat to public safety, including through a meaningful risk of recidivism.” DHS contends that this illustrates that the agency considered recidivism, and it was not required to support its position with “empirical or statistical studies.” Prometheus, 141 S. Ct. at 1160. But that is beside the point. The district court did not hold that the agency failed to consider recidivism at all. To the contrary, the court concluded that DHS failed to consider recidivism among the relevant population at issue in this case—“aliens who have been convicted of or are implicated in serious crime and aliens who have received a final order of removal.” Those are the aliens covered by § 1226(c) 16 or § 1231(a)(2). While the Considerations Memo generally relies on studies about criminality among all aliens, those studies did not account for potentially higher rates of recidivism among those “who have already been convicted of a serious crime.” 16 In fact, Congress was especially concerned with the serious harms repeat criminal aliens may cause if not detained when it passed § 1226(c). Demore v. Kim, 538 U.S. 510, 518–20 (2003). 27 Case: 22-40367 Document: 00516384389 Page: 28 Date Filed: 07/06/2022 No. 22-40367 DHS does not assert that general alien criminality can substitute for data concerning the subset of convicted aliens. In fact, in 2019, DHS itself acknowledged that criminal aliens recidivate and abscond at higher rates: Of the 123,128 ERO administrative arrests in FY 2019 with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, the criminal history for this group represented 489,063 total criminal convictions and pending charges as of the date of arrest, which equates to an average of four criminal arrests/convictions per alien, highlighting the recidivist nature of the aliens that ICE arrests. Yet this actual differential between the general population and the serious previous offender population receives no mention in the Considerations Memo. And it undoubtedly should have, because repeat illegal alien offenders inflict considerable damage on innocent American citizens. On this record, DHS is unlikely to succeed in demonstrating that it considered “the relevant data” and drew a “rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.” State Farm, 463 U.S. at 43, 103 S. Ct. at 2866 (internal quotation marks omitted). We next address the costs of this rule to the States and their reliance interests. “When an agency changes course, as DHS did here, it must ‘be cognizant that longstanding policies may have engendered serious reliance interests that must be taken into account.’” Dep’t of Homeland Sec. v. Regents of the Univ. of California, 140 S. Ct. 1891, 1913 (2020) (quoting Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, 579 U.S. 211, 212, 136 S. Ct. 2117, 2120 (2016)). Failure to do so is fatal. DHS contends that a multi-page section in the Considerations Memo analyzing the “Impact on States” demonstrates that it adequately considered these interests before circulating the Final Memo. The district court found, however, that this analysis merely paid “lip service to the States’ concerns.” 28 Case: 22-40367 Document: 00516384389 Page: 29 Date Filed: 07/06/2022 No. 22-40367 We are troubled by DHS’s dismissive analysis, which dots “i’s” and crosses “t’s” without actually saying anything. For example, DHS minimizes the influence of its policy on the States as maybe having some “downstream impacts.” The Considerations Memo then states that it “cannot provide an exhaustive analysis of all of these potential impacts every time it adopts a change in immigration policy.” Rather, it claims that any such “assessment” would be “uniquely difficult to conclude with certainty,” so it simply does not bother. Yet, after explicitly declining to quantify or at least reasonably describe the costs of this policy to the States, the agency audaciously concludes that “any effects from implementation of priorities guidance are unlikely to be significant, and could have a net positive effect.” As to the States’ reliance interests, the Considerations Memo flatly concludes that “no such reasonable reliance interests exist.” In a single paragraph citing no evidence, DHS concluded that the States, including Texas as a 900-mile border state, has no reliance interests in the enforcement of federal criminal immigration law according to the governing statutes. 17 This omission is more inexcusable since the States have consistently asserted their reliance interests in the context of this litigation, which has been ongoing simultaneously with DHS’s promulgation of the Final Memo and the Considerations Memo. “Stating that a factor was considered . . . is not a substitute for considering it.” Getty v. Fed. Sav. & Loan Ins. Corp., 805 F.2d 1050, 1055 (D.C. Cir. 1986). Rather, courts “must make a searching and careful inquiry to determine if [the agency] actually did consider it.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). At this point, DHS has not shown a likelihood that it adequately considered the relevant costs to the States or their reliance interests in the pre-existing enforcement policy. 17 But see supra note 4. 29 Case: 22-40367 Document: 00516384389 Page: 30 Date Filed: 07/06/2022 No. 22-40367