Opinion ID: 612089
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Collateral Consequences

Text: 20 The Sentencing Reform Act states that once a person has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment, he or she shall be committed to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons until the expiration of the term imposed. 18 U.S.C. § 3621(a) (1988). The Bureau is given a great deal of flexibility with respect to the assignment of any prisoner to a correctional facility: 21 [t]he Bureau of Prisons shall designate the place of the prisoner's imprisonment. The Bureau may designate any available penal or correctional facility ... that the Bureau determines to be appropriate and suitable, considering-- 22
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26 (A) concerning the purposes for which the sentence to imprisonment was determined to be warranted; or 27 (B) recommending a type of penal or correctional facility as appropriate; and 28
29 Id. § 3621(b) (1988 & Supp. II 1990) (emphasis added). 30 The Sentencing Reform Act also provides that the Bureau shall, to the extent practicable, assure that a prisoner spend some portion of the last 10% of the term of imprisonment under conditions that will allow the prisoner to prepare for re-entry into the community. Id. § 3624(c) (1988 & Supp. II 1990). Typically such preparatory reentry confinement involves reassignment to a minimum security facility such as a halfway house. The government states that it is not in fact the Bureau's policy automatically to deny § 3624(c) reassignment to aliens if they can show that they had in the United States (a) at least five years of domicile, (b) strong family and community ties, and (c) a history of stable employment; and that, though Restrepo had not made this showing at the time his PSR was prepared, it was not clear that he would not do so in time to be granted reassignment. Though we, like the district court, are skeptical of the suggestion that the Bureau would actually reassign Restrepo, a deportable alien who is not eligible for discretionary relief from deportation, to a minimum-security facility, we think it unnecessary to consider the government's suggestion. Even if it were a steadfast policy of the Bureau to deny reassignment to relaxed-security facilities to alien prisoners who must be deported on account of their convictions, we would consider that policy an inappropriate basis for departure from the imprisonment range prescribed by the Guidelines. Assuming that § 3624(c) was intended to apply to deportable aliens, the statute does not on its face require the Bureau to ensure that all prisoners participate in such a program, but only to do so if practicable. For example, the Bureau need not reassign the prisoner to a halfway house if there is no such unit in his home state, and the absence of such a facility has been held to be an impermissible ground for departure from the Guidelines, United States v. Pozzy, 902 F.2d 133, 140 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 943, 111 S.Ct. 353, 112 L.Ed.2d 316 (1990). 31 More importantly, Congress has directed that upon release from prison, a deportable alien is not to be released back into the community, but must instead, pending deportation, be released to the custody of the Attorney General. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(A) (1988 & Supp. III 1991). Given the focus of § 3624(c) on prisoners who are to reenter the community, it is arguable that Congress, having instructed that deportable aliens not be released into the community, did not mean § 3624(c) to apply to such aliens. Had Congress so stated, a court's disapproval of that policy choice would not be an appropriate basis for a departure from the Guidelines, for the court's attempt to palliate that choice would encroach on the prerogative of the Legislative Branch. Considering the discretion that Congress has confided to the Bureau and the reasonableness of the Bureau's consideration of the fact that the prisoner will be deported following the completion of his term of imprisonment, we think the court's disapproval of the Bureau's exercise of its discretion to deny that prisoner reassignment to a minimum-security facility is likewise an inappropriate basis for departure. 32 In any event, if there is a defect in the Bureau's policy toward reassignment of deportable aliens, the appropriate way to remedy that defect would be pursuit of an action that challenges such a policy head-on, not the ad hoc granting of departures that have the effect of creating the very type of disparity in sentencing that the adoption of the Guidelines was intended to eliminate. 33
34 The district court noted that the INS normally files a detainer with the Bureau of Prisons during the last month of a deportable alien's imprisonment and that this can result in his being further incarcerated in a deportation detention facility while deportation proceedings are conducted. This additional period of incarceration, the district court found, can average 59 days. Quite apart from the fact that an average delay of 59 days seems a weak basis for the eight-month reduction granted here, we have difficulties with this as a basis for departure. 35 First, aliens who are to be deported for reasons other than the commission of crimes may be detained pending their deportation. See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(1) (Pending a determination of deportation in the case of any alien ..., such alien may, upon warrant of the Attorney General, be arrested and taken into custody.... [A]ny such alien taken into custody may, in the discretion of the Attorney General and pending such final determination of deportability, (A) be continued in custody; or (B) be released under bond ...; or (C) be released on conditional parole.). Some, albeit not most, aliens who are to be deported for reasons other than conviction of a crime are indeed detained pending deportation. See United States General Accounting Office, Immigration Control: Immigration Policies Affect INS Detention Efforts 28-29 (1992) (majority of such aliens not detained unless it is determined that they pose a danger to public safety or national security or are likely to abscond); see also Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228, 235, 16 S.Ct. 977, 980, 41 L.Ed. 140 (1896) (Proceedings to ... expel would be vain if those accused could not be held in custody ... while arrangements were being made for their deportation.). 36 Since a deportable alien may be detained though he has not been convicted of a crime, a detention that occurs pending deportation following a convicted alien's completion of his term of imprisonment should not be viewed as a detention resulting solely from his conviction. Nor should it be viewed as part and parcel of the punishment for his criminal offense. Rather, it is part of a penalty that has traditionally been termed civil rather than punitive, see, e.g., Abel v. United States, 362 U.S. 217, 237, 80 S.Ct. 683, 696, 4 L.Ed.2d 668 (1960) (deportation proceedings not subject to the constitutional safeguards that would be required for criminal prosecutions); United States v. Koziel, 954 F.2d 831, 835 (2d Cir.1992) (deportation is a civil penalty) (emphasis in original). Hence, in comparing the punishments meted out to an alien and to a citizen, respectively, it is inapt to measure the latter's sentence against the former's sentence plus deportation-related detention. 37 Second, [i]n the case of an alien who is convicted of an offense which makes the alien subject to deportation, the Attorney General is directed to begin any deportation proceeding as expeditiously as possible after the date of conviction. 8 U.S.C. § 1252(i) (1988). Any unnecessary delay in the initiation of deportation proceedings for the convicted alien is, at a minimum, contrary to the spirit of the law. Anticipatory relief from a possible delay, however, by way of a downward departure in sentencing is speculative and inappropriate. Remedy for such a delay may more appropriately be sought either by writ of habeas corpus, see id. § 1252(c) (1988), or by a lawsuit challenging the pertinent policies and practices of the Attorney General.
38 The major factor relied on by the district court in departing was that Restrepo would be deported following his term of incarceration, thereby ending his resident alien status, separating him from his American wife and children, and banishing him forever from the United States. Though these are indeed effects of his narcotics conviction as an alien, and though deportation, as a forfeiture for misconduct of a residence in this country, is a civil penalty, Fong Haw Tan v. Phelan, 333 U.S. 6, 10, 68 S.Ct. 374, 376, 92 L.Ed. 433 (1948), we cannot see that these effects justify shortening the sentence prescribed by the Guidelines. 39 While we have seen no indication that Congress, which provided for discretionary relief from deportation in limited circumstances, or the Sentencing Commission, which fashioned the Guidelines, considered the interplay between deportability and sentencing provisions, accord United States v. Alvarez-Cardenas, 902 F.2d 734, 737 (9th Cir.1990) (no guideline section directly addresses whether threat of deportation is a legally permissible ground for departing), it is difficult to believe that the Commission was not conscious that a large number of defendants sentenced in the federal courts are aliens. For example, in 1991, approximately 23 percent of the defendants sentenced under the Guidelines were aliens. United States Sentencing Commission, 1991 Annual Report 50. 40 In any event, as a basis for downward departure, deportability is at best a factor at war with itself. On the one hand, there is no doubt that in some cases deportation may cause substantial hardship. On the other hand, the district court's reduction of the prison term in recognition of those hardships does not eliminate the hardships or make the effects less harsh; rather, it advances the day when deportation will occur. It is difficult to see that a condition not alleviated but rather hastened by the sentencing departure is a rational ground for the departure. 41 It is also noteworthy that despite the fact that hastening deportation would seem to exacerbate rather than remedy its harshness, a defendant who seeks such a departure apparently prefers that result to the longer sentence. If swifter deportation is the defendant's preference, it is perhaps erroneous to view deportation as so harsh as to warrant a reduction in the period of imprisonment prescribed by the Guidelines. Indeed, the district court's rationale, carried to its logical conclusion, would support a decision not to impose any term of imprisonment whatever. 42 In sum, to be appropriate, a departure from the Guidelines must not only be based on a factor not considered, in kind or to degree, by the Commission; it must also rationally be capable of remedying or alleviating the problem caused by that factor. The fact that Restrepo is to be deported is not alleviated by reducing his term of imprisonment.