Opinion ID: 797821
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether Petitioners must have expressly requested a stay of the voluntary departure order

Text: 37 In Thapa, and most cases where other courts have held the period for voluntary departure may be stayed, the petitioner expressly moved for a stay of voluntary departure. See id. at 326-27; see, e.g., Nwakanma, 352 F.3d at 327; Lopez-Chavez, 383 F.3d at 651. In contrast, Petitioners here sought a stay of deportation, but not a stay of voluntary departure. That said, two circuits—the Ninth Circuit in Desta v. Ashcroft, 365 F.3d 741, 743 (9th Cir.2004), and the Eighth Circuit in Rife, 374 F.3d at 616—have held that where an alien files a motion to stay removal before the period for voluntary departure expires, such a motion should be construed as including a motion to stay the voluntary departure period. According to both courts, this is so because, a motion seeking a stay of voluntary departure is ancillary, Desta, 365 F.3d at 748, or complementary, Rife, 374 F.3d at 616, to a stay of deportation. We disagree. For the reasons that follow, we join the First and Seventh Circuits, both of which have held that an alien who wishes to stay the period for voluntary departure must explicitly ask for such a stay. Bocova, 412 F.3d at 268; Alimi v. Ashcroft, 391 F.3d 888, 892-93 (7th Cir.2004) 38 When an alien is ordered deported, a warrant by the INS District Director is issued authorizing the officer to take the alien into custody and deport him or her. Gordon, Mailman & Yale-Loehr, Immigration Law and Procedure § 72.08[1][a] (rev. ed.2005). When this Court grants a stay of deportation, we are preventing the forced removal of an alien from the country. Such stays are particularly important in cases governed by IIRIRA's transitional rules because removal of an alien strips this Court of jurisdiction to hear their petition for review. See Elian, 370 F.3d at 900. Thus, if we deny a stay of deportation, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to review a claim, and as a result, we may end up returning an alien to the very persecution he or she was fleeing in the first place. 39 Voluntary departure, in contrast, is a privilege granted an alien in lieu of deportation. See Ballenilla-Gonzalez v. INS, 546 F.2d 515, 521 (2d Cir.1976). Although it carries with it significant restrictions barring an alien's readmission to the United States, see Thapa, 460 F.3d at 328, voluntary departure affords an alien certain benefits: [I]t allows [him] to choose [his] own destination points, to put [his] affairs in order without fear of being taken into custody at any time, to avoid the stigma and various penalties associated with forced removals (including extended detention while the government procures the necessary travel documents and ineligibility for readmission for a period of five or ten years, see 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(9)(A)), and it facilitates the possibility of return to the United States, for example, by adjustment of status. Id. An immigration judge's order granting voluntary departure usually withholds the entry of a deportation order, permitting the respondent to depart within a specified period, and directs that the deportation order shall become effective automatically if respondent does not depart. Gordon, Mailman and Yale-Loehr, supra, at § 74.02[4][c]. Where an alien departs within the specified time period, the alien is not regarded as having been deported and thus obtains the benefits of departure without deportation. Id. 40 In contrast to a stay of deportation, which stops the physical removal of an alien from the country, a stay of voluntary departure stops the clock on the period within which an alien is required to depart and, if granted, effectively extends the time during which an alien is allowed to leave voluntarily. An alien `does not lose something when offered the additional opportunity to depart voluntarily. On the contrary, he retains precisely the same right to judicial review he would otherwise have had; it is only that his alternative to continued litigation has been made more attractive.' Harchenko v. INS, 379 F.3d 405, 412-413 (6th Cir.2004) (quoting Castaneda v. INS, 23 F.3d 1576, 1582 (10th Cir.1994)). In other words, an alien granted voluntary departure has a choice—leave within the specified time period and retain the benefits afforded, or remain, litigate the claim to the very end, but bear the consequences of having decided not to depart. See Ngarurih, 371 F.3d at 194 ([A]n alien considering voluntary departure must decide whether an exemption from the ordinary bars on subsequent relief is worth the cost of returning to the home country within the period specified. Having made his election, however, the alien takes all the benefits and all the burdens of the statute together.). 41 The relief sought by a stay of deportation, therefore, is different from that sought by a stay of voluntary departure. 8 Whereas a stay of deportation is aimed at preventing forcible removal, a stay of the voluntary departure period is a way for the alien to extend the benefits of the privilege of voluntary departure beyond the date the alien was initially afforded. In addition, the equities involved in the two types of stays may also differ. See Rife, 374 F.3d at 616 ([W]e do not hold that every alien who warrants a stay of removal also warrants a stay of voluntary departure . . . because there may be cases where the equities relevant to the two types of stay will balance differently.). Accordingly, we will not construe a stay of deportation automatically to include a stay of the period for voluntary departure. See Bocova, 412 F.3d at 268-69 (noting that while the same test for granting a stay of removal applies to a stay of voluntary departure, that test may play out differently as to each type of relief so that the alien should be required to be precise about the relief requested); Alimi, 391 F.3d at 893 (noting that the differences between a stay of removal and a stay tolling the period for voluntary departure require[] attention by both the parties and the court, attention that is possible only if a stay of removal and extra time for voluntary departure are treated as distinct subjects that must be separately addressed).