Opinion ID: 564781
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Matter of Lok as Support for the Decision

Text: 14 With the foregoing principles in mind, we turn to the BIA's opinion in support of its denial of Vargas's motion. We first evaluate the stated justification for the decision. The BIA opinion contains no mention of statutory or regulatory provisions. Nor does it discuss reasons which might justify its decision. The sole support for the decision is a quoted phrase from Matter of Lok, 18 I & N Dec. 101, a BIA decision rendered in 1981. 15 Matter of Lok, however, is not an adequate basis for the BIA's decision. In that case, the BIA denied the application of a permanent resident alien for Section 212(c) relief because the alien had failed to accrue the required seven years of lawful unrelinquished domicile and was therefore statutorily ineligible. Among other things, the BIA decided that an alien should not be permitted to accrue time towards the seven-year requirement after the entry of an enforceable final administrative order of deportation. The BIA defined such an order to have been issued when the Board renders its decision in the case upon appeal or certification or, where no appeal to the Board is taken, when appeal is waived or the time allotted for appeal has expired. 18 I. & N. Dec. 101, at 105. The BIA justified its rule by reasoning that a rule which permitted aliens to continue accruing time during judicial appeals would encourage spurious appeals ... made solely for the purpose of accumulating more time toward eligibility for section 212(c) relief. Id. at 106. In view of the limited scope of review on appeal and the ability of a Court of Appeals to reverse a BIA deportability finding and thus to restore an alien's lawful permanent residence status, the BIA found no ultimate prejudice to aliens from its rule. Id. at 107. 16 We affirmed Matter of Lok on narrow grounds. Lok v. INS, 681 F.2d 107 (2d Cir.1982). We did not expressly affirm the BIA's conclusion that Lok's permanent resident status ended with the administratively final ruling of deportability for purposes of counting the Section 212(c) seven-year requirement. Instead, we ruled that, for purposes of calculating the seven-year requirement, Lok's status as a permanent resident ended when he failed to appeal the Immigration Judge's finding of deportability. In so ruling, we also intimated that Lok's eligibility for Section 212(c) relief, once established, would survive a finding of deportability. Id. at 110. We stated that, after failing to appeal the deportability finding, Lok's only defense to deportation was an appeal to the discretion of the Attorney General under Sec. 212(c). Id. 17 Matter of Lok, therefore, stands only for the proposition that an alien cannot become eligible for discretionary relief through subsequent accrual of time towards the seven-year threshold, once he has conceded that he is deportable. Lok, 681 F.2d at 110. Without further reasoning or analysis, the BIA has extended Matter of Lok to terminate petitioner's clearly existing eligibility for Section 212(c) relief. This is inadequate justification for the decision. Petitioner resided in the United States fourteen years prior to running afoul of the law. At the time deportability proceedings began, he was indisputably eligible for Section 212(c) relief. The concern which motivated the creation of the rule in Matter of Lok --preventing an alien from manipulating deportability proceedings so as to acquire the seven years of domicile--is not present here. The BIA justified the decision with no other basis or explanation. We thus cannot conclude that the decision is the product of reasoned decision-making. United States v. Garner, 767 F.2d 104, 106 (5th Cir.1985); e.g., Graphic Communications International Union Local 554 v. Salem-Gravure Division of World Color Press, 843 F.2d 1490, 1494 (D.C.Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1011, 109 S.Ct. 1119, 103 L.Ed.2d 182 (1989). 18 While this alone would merit vacatur, there are further grounds for our decision, which we consider below.