Opinion ID: 1352327
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jurisdiction Over Khouzam's Petition for Review

Text: The Government argues that the DHS's decision to terminate Khouzam's deferral of removal is not a final order of removal, and thus this Court has no jurisdiction to consider that decision through Khouzam's petition for review. Alternatively, the Government argues that the petition for review, even if permissible, should have been filed in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Khouzam contends that 8 U.S.C. § 1252 should be interpreted to provide jurisdiction over his petition for review due to the serious constitutional questions that would otherwise arise. As the Supreme Court noted in St. Cyr, we must avoid construing a statute in a manner that would raise serious constitutional problems, if an alternative interpretation that would avoid such problems is fairly possible. 533 U.S. at 300, 121 S.Ct. 2271 (citations and internal quotations omitted). Furthermore, Khouzam contends that forum selection is non-jurisdictional and this Court should exercise its discretion to retain the case. We agree with Khouzam. We conclude that 8 U.S.C. § 1252 can, and accordingly must, be fairly interpreted to provide jurisdiction over his petition for review. Furthermore, we agree that forum selection here is a matter of venue, and that it is appropriate for us to retain the case under the circumstances. The Supreme Court has firmly established that a statute denying an alien the ability to test the legality of the alien's detention through a habeas petition is subject to constitutional scrutiny, and, upon failing such scrutiny, may be invalidated as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ. See Boumediene, 128 S.Ct. at 2262, 2274. The Supreme Court further instructs us that the Suspension Clause is not implicated so long as Congress provides an adequate and effective alternative to habeas review. Swain v. Pressley, 430 U.S. 372, 381, 97 S.Ct. 1224, 51 L.Ed.2d 411 (1977); accord Boumediene, 128 S.Ct. at 2262; St. Cyr, 533 U.S. at 314 n. 38, 121 S.Ct. 2271. Without question, serious constitutional questions would be raised if Khouzam were afforded no alternative to the habeas review denied by 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(4). We have held that there is no question that a petition for review with a court of appeals, under the current statutory regime, provides an alien an adequate substitute to habeas review. Kolkevich v. Att'y Gen., 501 F.3d 323, 332 (3d Cir.2007). Other courts of appeal have reached the same conclusion. See, e.g., Singh v. Mukasey, 533 F.3d 1103, 1106-08 (9th Cir.2008); Ruiz-Martinez v. Mukasey, 516 F.3d 102, 114 (2d Cir.2008); Mohamed v. Gonzales, 477 F.3d 522, 526 (8th Cir.2007); Alexandre v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 452 F.3d 1204, 1206 (11th Cir.2006). Therefore, so long as it is fairly possible for us to conclude that we have jurisdiction over Khouzam's petition for review, we will do so to avoid the serious constitutional questions that would be raised if Khouzam lacked any judicial forum in which to challenge his removal. We find no tension between this interpretive approach and the legislative history of the habeas-stripping provision. The House Conference Report that accompanied the REAL ID Act plainly states that the Act does not eliminate judicial review. H.R.Rep. No. 109-72, at 174, 2005 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 299. Rather, the overall effect of the proposed reforms is to give every alien a fair opportunity to obtain judicial review while restoring order and common sense to the judicial review process. Id. at 174, 2005 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 299. The Report indicates that Congress was fully aware of the constitutional pitfalls of stripping habeas jurisdiction, and sought to avoid them entirely in crafting the provision codified in 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(4): [S]ection 106 would give every alien one day in the court of appeals, satisfying constitutional concerns. The Supreme Court has held that in supplanting the writ of habeas corpus with an alternative scheme, Congress need only provide a scheme which is an adequate and effective substitute for habeas corpus. See Swain v. Pressley, 430 U.S. 372, 381, 97 S.Ct. 1224, 51 L.Ed.2d 411 (1977). Indeed, in St. Cyr itself, the Supreme Court recognized that Congress could, without raising any constitutional questions, provide an adequate substitute through the courts of appeals. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. at 314 n. 38, 121 S.Ct. 2271 (emphasis added). By placing all review in the courts of appeals, [the REAL ID Act] would provide an adequate and effective alternative to habeas corpus. Id. Since section 1252(a)(4) provides that a petition for review under section 1252 is the exclusive alternative to habeas review, our task is to determine whether we have jurisdiction to entertain Khouzam's petition under that authority. We have previously held that section 1252 only confers jurisdiction on us to review final orders of removal. Obale v. Att'y Gen., 453 F.3d 151, 158 & n. 6 (3d Cir.2006) (synthesizing the relevant subsections of 8 U.S.C. § 1252); see 8 U.S.C. §§ 1252(a)(1), (b). We must therefore decide whether it is fairly possible for us to determine that the DHS's decision to terminate Kouzam's deferral of removal is a final order of removal. This inquiry requires us to consider first whether the decision was an order of removal, and, if so, whether that order was final. Congress did not provide a definition for an order of removal. Congress did, however, supply a definition for order of deportation. See 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(47)(A). In other contexts, this circuit and others have used the terms deportation and deportable interchangeably with the terms removal and removable. See Kolkevich, 501 F.3d at 326 n. 2; Obale, 453 F.3d at 160; Viracacha v. Mukasey, 518 F.3d 511, 513-14 (7th Cir.2008); Lolong v. Gonzales, 484 F.3d 1173, 1177 n. 2 (9th Cir.2007); Sosa-Valenzuela v. Gonzales, 483 F.3d 1140, 1144 n. 5 (10th Cir.2007). By substituting the respective terms into the statutory definition of an order of deportation, we have previously deemed an order of removal to be an order ... concluding that the alien is [removable] or ordering [removal]. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(47); Obale, 453 F.3d at 160. Seeing no reason to reconsider this approach here, we apply the definition to the DHS's decision. On February 24, 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ruling by which Khouzam was granted deferral of removal. With that deferral in effect, the Government had no authority to remove Khouzam to Egypt. The DHS subsequently informed Khouzam on May 29, 2007 that, on the basis of diplomatic assurances from Egypt, it decided to terminate the deferral of removal and that Khouzam was accordingly subject to imminent removal. Moreover, a declaration by the ICE dated May 30, 2007, indicates that the ICE arrested and detained Mr. Khouzam on May 29, 2007, in preparation for enforcing Mr. Khouzam's final order of removal. (JA 283.) Thus, the decision of the DHS to terminate Khouzam's deferral of removal made him eligible for, and apparently subject to, imminent removal to Egypt. We therefore conclude that the DHS's decision was an order of removal under section 1252. The Government asserts that the BIA's order of March 7, 2002 denying Khouzam's applications for asylum and withholding of removal is an order of removal that will remain in effect regardless of any ruling on deferral. While this observation may well be correct, it has no bearing on whether the DHS's termination of deferral may also qualify as an order of removal. We find nothing to suggest that an alien may be subject to only one order of removal at a time. Furthermore, we see no reason why a termination of CAT relief should be treated any differently for jurisdictional purposes from an initial denial of CAT relief, which we regularly review as an order of removal. See, e.g., Pierre v. Att'y Gen., 528 F.3d 180 (3d Cir.2008) (en banc). Our reasoning is in accord with the Second Circuit's recent ruling in Ali v. Mukasey, 529 F.3d 478 (2d Cir.2008), where the court vacated a termination of deferral of removal without raising any distinction between the denial of CAT relief and the termination of deferral as to CAT relief. Id. at 488. The Government also contends that Khouzam challenged his March 7, 2002 order of removal before the Second Circuit and, under Bonhometre v. Gonzales, 414 F.3d 442 (3d Cir.2005), aliens are limited to one bite of the apple with regard to challenging an order of removal. Id. at 446. The problem with this argument is that the DHS handed Khouzam a new apple when it decided to terminate his deferral of removal. The DHS decision at issue here is a new order for removal that has never been the subject of a petition for review. Having determined that the DHS's decision was an order of removal, we next consider whether it is fairly possible to conclude that the order was final. Congress provided no statutory definition to establish when an order for removal becomes final. Here, the substitution of removal for deportation into existing statutory definitions is less helpful. Congress provided that an order for deportation shall become final upon the earlier of (i) a determination by the [BIA] affirming such order; or (ii) the expiration of the period in which the alien is permitted to seek review of such order by the [BIA]. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(47)(B). The BIA never ruled on the DHS decision, nor was Khouzam afforded any opportunity to raise the matter before any adjudicative body. Indeed, this is a central concern raised by Khouzam in his substantive arguments. While we found the deportation definition to be helpful above, it does not restrict us. First, even if removal were identical in meaning to deportation under the statute, the definition does not expressly exclude other triggers for finality. Moreover, it appears that Congress did not intend an order of deportation to be wholly synonymous with an order of removal, but rather that orders for deportation are a subset of orders for removal. For instance, section 309(d)(2) of the IIRIRA provides that [f]or purposes of carrying out the [INA] ... any reference in law to an order for removal shall be deemed to include a reference to an order of exclusion and deportation or an order of deportation. Pub.L. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996) (emphasis added). Thus, the definition for finality of deportation orders does not control our analysis of the finality of an order of removal. [10] Lacking a statutory definition, we can nonetheless easily determine that the DHS's order of removal was final through a common sense application of the term's plain meaning. The Government itself claims that Khouzam was subject to imminent removal once the DHS decided to terminate the deferral of removal. Thus, the Government argues that the DHS's termination decision was final under the relevant statutory scheme. Moreover, we again note that the ICE itself stated that it arrested and detained Mr. Khouzam ... in preparation for enforcing Mr. Khouzam's final order of removal. (JA 283.) Clearly, Khouzam was going to be removed, and that was final. We therefore conclude that the DHS's decision to terminate Khouzam's deferral of removal was effectively a final order of removal, and thus subject to our review under section 1252. The Government argues that, even if the DHS decision could be raised in a petition for review, we lack jurisdiction because a petition for review shall be filed with the court of appeals for the judicial circuit in which the immigration judge completed the proceedings. 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(2). The Government notes that no IJ conducted any proceedings in our judicial circuit. In fact, as Khouzam argues, no IJ in any circuit even participated in the decision to terminate removal. However, section 1252(b)(2) is a non-jurisdictional venue provision. Bonhometre, 414 F.3d at 446 (citing Nwaokolo v. INS, 314 F.3d 303, 306 n. 2 (7th Cir.2002)). In Bonhometre, we exercised jurisdiction over petitions for review despite the fact that proceedings occurred within the First Circuit's jurisdiction. Id. We explained that, given that this case has been thoroughly briefed and argued before us, and given that [the alien] has waited a long time for the resolution of his claims, we believe it would be a manifest injustice to now transfer this case to another court for duplicative proceedings. Id. For the reasons stated in Bonhometre, and the possible lack of any alternative forum, we retain Khouzam's petition for review.