Opinion ID: 6064
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Applicability of Section 212(c) Relief

Text: 6 Section 241(a)(14) of the INA, as in effect at the time of Rodriguez's deportation proceedings, provides that the Attorney General may order deported any alien who 7 at any time after entry, shall have been convicted of possessing or carrying in violation of any law any weapon which shoots or is designed to shoot automatically or semi-automatically more than one shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger, or a weapon commonly called a sawed-off shotgun. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(14). 8 Rodriguez concedes that he is deportable for his conviction of possession of a sawed-off shotgun. He argues only that he should be given the opportunity to apply for relief from deportation under section 212(c) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(c). Section 212(c) allows the Attorney General to waive exclusion of aliens who are found to be inadmissible upon certain grounds specified in section 212(a), 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(a). 6 Grounds for exclusion include many which are similar to grounds for deportation set forth in section 241, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251, such as conviction for drug offenses. 7 There is no provision, however, for exclusion of aliens convicted of weapons offenses. 9 That Rodriguez may even attempt to apply for deportation relief under section 212(c), which applies on its face only to excludable aliens, 8 is due to judicial and administrative interpretations of the INA which have expanded section 212(c) to apply to some grounds of deportation. The BIA initially interpreted section 212(c) narrowly to apply only in exclusion proceedings and not in deportation proceedings. Matter of Arias-Uribe, 13 I. & N. Dec. 696 (BIA 1971). This interpretation drew a distinction between resident aliens who had temporarily left the United States and were found excludable for some reason upon return and those who had never left the United States and were found to be deportable upon the same grounds. 10 The Second Circuit found this distinction unconstitutional in Francis v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 532 F.2d 268 (2d Cir.1976). In Francis, the petitioner was a resident alien subject to deportation under section 241(a)(11) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(11), for conviction of possession of marijuana, which would also be grounds for exclusion. Sec. 212(a)(23) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(a)(23). 9 Because section 212(c) relief would be available for an excludable resident alien convicted of possession of marijuana, the Second Circuit held that denial of the same relief to the petitioner there would violate the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment. Francis, 532 F.2d at 273. 11 The BIA adopted this interpretation of section 212(c) in Matter of Silva, 16 I. & N. Dec. 26 (BIA 1976) (petitioner subject to deportation for conviction of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute allowed to apply for section 212(c) discretionary relief). The BIA did not, however, extend discretionary relief to all grounds for deportation. Instead, the BIA limited this extension of section 212(c) relief to deportable resident aliens whose grounds for deportation are also grounds for exclusion under section 212(a) for which discretionary relief is available under section 212(c). See Matter of Wadud, 19 I. & N. Dec. 182 (BIA 1984) (alien subject to deportation under section 241(a)(5) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(5), for conviction of aiding and abetting another alien to obtain a visa procured by fraud was not entitled to invoke section 212(c) relief because there is no analogous ground of exclusion); Matter of Granados, 16 I. & N. Dec. 726 (BIA 1979) (refusing to extend section 212(c) to allow relief from deportation for an alien convicted of possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun because such a conviction is not a section 212(a) ground for exclusion nor a crime involving moral turpitude that would render petitioner excludable under section 212(a)(9) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(a)(9)), aff'd, 624 F.2d 191 (9th Cir.1980). 12 In 1990, the BIA expanded its interpretation of section 212(c) to include all grounds for deportation, even if not also grounds for exclusion under section 212(a), except for the grounds which are expressly precluded from relief by section 212(c). Matter of Hernandez-Casillas, (BIA, January 11, 1990) (Hernandez I ). In that case, an alien was convicted of entry without inspection, a deportable offense under section 241(a)(2) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(2), but not grounds for exclusion under section 212(a). The BIA withdrew its decisions in Granados and Wadud, and remanded the case to allow the alien to apply for a section 212(c) waiver. 13 The Attorney General granted the INS's request for review of the BIA decision, disapproved the decision, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with his decision. Matter of Hernandez-Casillas, Int. Dec. Att. Gen. March 18, 1991 (Hernandez II ). The Attorney General concluded that the BIA lacked statutory authority to expand section 212(c) relief to grounds of deportation that are not also waivable grounds for exclusion. He stated that the BIA's new interpretation of section 212(c) relief would disrupt the statutory scheme designed by Congress to govern deportation proceedings by allowing an alien to obtain relief under section 212(c) without meeting the standards for relief from deportation set forth in section 244(a)(1) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1254(a)(1). 10 14 Courts reviewing the decisions of the BIA have upheld the initial expansion of section 212(c) to grounds for deportation which have corresponding grounds for exclusion, and most courts have taken positions similar to that of the Attorney General and refused to extend section 212(c) relief to grounds of deportation which are not also grounds for exclusion. 15 In Zinnanti v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 651 F.2d 420, 422 (5th Cir. Unit A 1981), this Court summarily denied section 212(c) relief to a petitioner convicted of possession of a sawed-off shotgun. In addition, the First and Ninth Circuits have recently addressed this issue and found section 212(c) relief to be unavailable in this situation. See Campos v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 961 F.2d 309 (1st Cir.1992) (agreeing with the reasoning of the Attorney General in Hernandez II and holding that an alien who was ordered deported on the basis of a conviction for possession of an unlicensed .22 caliber pistol was not eligible to apply for section 212(c) relief); Cabasug v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 847 F.2d 1321 (9th Cir.1988) (dismissing the petition for review of an alien convicted of possession of a sawed-off shotgun). Finally, the Seventh Circuit has recently held section 212(c) relief to be unavailable to a permanent resident alien found deportable for entering the United States without inspection. Leal-Rodriguez v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 990 F.2d 939, 948-51 (7th Cir.1993). 16 The 1990 amendments to the INA, which affected sections 212(c) and 241, were made after the Ninth Circuit rendered its decision in Cabasug and after the Attorney General agreed to review Hernandez I. 11 We must assume that Congress was aware of the interpretation given to section 212(c) to extend only to deportation grounds with analogous waivable grounds for exclusion, and that Congress could easily have legislated a change to this interpretation had it wished to do so. 12 17 Rodriguez seeks to distinguish Campos and Cabasug on the grounds that the petitioners in those cases were subject to deportation solely for their weapons convictions. He claims that because he is also subject to deportation for his drug possession convictions, offenses for which discretionary relief under section 212(c) is available, his weapons offense may not preclude an application for relief from deportation. In support of this argument, he cites the original Eleventh Circuit decision in Marti-Xiques v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 713 F.2d 1511 (11th Cir.1983), vacated, 724 F.2d 1463 (11th Cir.1984), decided on other grounds, 741 F.2d 350 (11th Cir.1984). The petitioner in Marti-Xiques was found deportable for entering the United States without inspection and for knowingly aiding another alien to enter. Smuggling aliens is an offense which renders an alien deportable or excludable. Entering without inspection, however, is a ground of deportation only. The Eleventh Circuit allowed the alien to apply for section 212(c) relief on both grounds of deportability, but the court limited its holding to situations where an alien is deportable under two grounds arising out of the same incident, and where the more serious of the grounds for deportation is an enumerated ground for exclusion. This decision was later vacated and the case was decided on other grounds. 13 18 Rodriguez contends that the reasoning of the original decision in Marti-Xiques should control here because he is deportable under two grounds, one of which may be waived pursuant to section 212(c). We doubt that the panel opinion in Marti-Xiques has any validity in this respect. Even if it were good law in certain restricted circumstances, we would not apply it here. The two deportation grounds in Marti-Xiques arose out of the same incident and were closely related types of entry offenses, the offense having no counterpart in Sec. 212(a) being a misdemeanor while the other offense, which had a Sec. 212(a) counterpart, was a felony. Id., 713 F.2d at 1515-16. By contrast, Rodriguez's conviction for possession of a sawed-off shotgun is a felony and a distinctly different type of offense than either of his drug convictions and shares no common element with either of them. 19 We hold that Rodriguez is ineligible to apply for section 212(c) relief because his conviction of possession of a sawed-off shotgun, a ground for deportation, is not also a waivable ground for exclusion under section 212(a). His separate convictions for the drug charges do not mandate a different result.