Opinion ID: 553937
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Adverse Factors versus Favorable Equities

Text: 14 Because the BIA has legitimate concerns about the administration of the immigration laws, INS v. Rios-Pineda, 471 U.S. 444, 451, 105 S.Ct. 2098, 2103, 85 L.Ed.2d 452 (1985), an applicant for voluntary departure must offset any adverse factors by a showing of unusual or outstanding equities. Elkins v. Moreno, 435 U.S. 647, 667, 98 S.Ct. 1338, 1350, 55 L.Ed.2d 614 (1978) (citing Matter of Arai, 13 I & N 494, 495 (BIA 1970)). Generally, favorable factors such as family ties, hardship, length of residence in the United States, etc., will be considered as countervailing factors meriting favorable exercise of the administrative discretion. In the absence of adverse factors, adjustment will ordinarily be granted, still as a matter of discretion. Id. (quoting Arai, 13 I & N at 496). 15 Garcia-Lopez has equities in his favor. He points out that his violations of the immigration laws occurred many years ago; see Becerra-Jimenez, 829 F.2d at 999 (IJ did not give weight to deportation hearings in 1958 and 1968 because of long passage of time, but did consider an unlawful entry in 1975); he has not departed since 1982. He further points out that the humanitarian needs represented by the separation from his family members in the United States would create a hardship that weighs in favor of granting his request for voluntary departure. 16 The record indicates that the BIA considered all of the factors before it and carefully examined the IJ's reasoning before affirming the denial of voluntary departure. The IJ had considered the adverse factors, which consisted of Garcia-Lopez's repeated violations of the immigration laws, i.e., extending his stay beyond his tourist visa one time and entering the United States illegally four times, one time with a false passport. The favorable factors before the IJ were his United States citizen wife of six years 2 and step-daughter, his gainful employment (albeit illegal), and the fact that he had no record of any convictions (though the IJ noted that he had been arrested twice for battery and disorderly conduct). The IJ determined that Garcia-Lopez had shown a total and flagrant disregard for the immigration laws of this country and concluded that the favorable factors did not outweigh Garcia-Lopez's unfavorable immigration history. 17 The equities that were not before the IJ and which Garcia-Lopez acquired subsequent to the IJ's decision were before the BIA, but the BIA gave these newly acquired equities less weight. Bothyo, 772 F.2d at 357 (equities acquired after order of deportation entitled to less weight). Even considering all of the equities, the BIA concluded that those equities were outweighed by his violations of the immigration laws. 18 Dissatisfied with the administrative review of his case, Garcia-Lopez insists that the BIA has repeatedly given great weight to the hardship that the family will suffer because of the deportation. Therefore, he argues that the weight of the evidence in his case goes against the BIA's finding. In invoking humanitarian concerns, Garcia-Lopez cites cases which recognize the hardship imposed by the separation of family members. 19 First, not all of the cases to which he cites are voluntary departure cases. Second, the BIA clearly did consider the family members in the balancing of equities and adverse factors. Finally, contrary to Garcia-Lopez's contention, the BIA did not depart from established practices by giving more weight to a history of violations of the immigration laws than to the United States citizen family members and other favorable equities. E.g., Hernandez-Patino, 831 F.2d at 754-55 (examples of cases in which United States citizen family members did not satisfy statutory requirement for extreme hardship for suspension of deportation); Carnejo-Molina v. INS, 649 F.2d 1145, 1151 (5th Cir.1981) (two United States citizen children were not equities sufficient to overcome adverse factors for voluntary departure).