Opinion ID: 625945
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Retroactivity of the seven-year residency requirement

Text: Effective September 30, 1996, Congress amended INA § 212(h) to add a seven-year residency requirement: (a) IN GENERAL.Section 212(h) (8 U.S.C. 1182(h)) is amended by adding at the end the following: No waiver shall be granted under this subsection in the case of an alien who has previously been admitted to the United States as an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence if either since the date of such admission the alien has been convicted of an aggravated felony or the alien has not lawfully resided continuously in the United States for a period of not less than 7 years immediately preceding the date of initiation of proceedings to remove the alien from the United States.[] (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.The amendment made by subsection (a) shall be effective on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply in the case of any alien who is in exclusion or deportation proceedings as of such date unless a final administrative order in such proceedings has been entered as of such date. IIRIRA § 348, Pub. L. No. 104-208, at 3009-639. proceedings did not commence until September 10, 1997, nearly one year after the amendment to § 212(h). Section 212(h)'s residency requirement is thus prospective as applied to Peng's case. Its effective date in relation to her criminal proceedings is irrelevant. Because Peng was admitted to the U.S. in May 1991, and her removal proceedings commenced in September 1997, Peng does not meet the seven-year residency requirement and is ineligible for § 212(h) relief. We therefore deny her petition for review as to her due process claim under § 212(h).
Finally, Peng argues that it is a denial of equal protection to require LPRs, who have been convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude, to acquire seven years of continuous presence in the United States but not to impose the same requirement on non-LPRs who have been convicted of these crimes. Aliens are entitled to the benefits of equal protection. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 369, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220 (1886). Nonetheless, Congress retains broad power to regulate the admission and removal of aliens. See United States v. Viramontes-Alvarado, 149 F.3d 912, 916 (9th Cir.1998). Accordingly, our review of the immigration laws is limited, and we will uphold a statute if there is a facially legitimate and bona fide reason for enacting a discriminatory rule. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). We hold that there is a rational basis for applying the seven-year residency requirement to LPRs and not to non-LPRs, having considered a similar challenge in Taniguchi v. Schultz, 303 F.3d 950 (9th Cir.2002). There, we held that a rational basis exists for denying a § 212(h) waiver to LPRs (who had been convicted of aggravated felonies) but not to non-LPRs (who had been convicted of aggravated felonies). Id. at 957-58. We noted that LPRs enjoy substantial rights and privileges not shared by other aliens, and therefore it is arguably proper to hold them to a higher standard and level of responsibility than [non-LPRs]. Id. at 958 (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). In addition, LPRs that were convicted of aggravated felonies have demonstrated that the generally stronger ties they have to the United States were insufficient to deter this criminal conduct. Id. Therefore, Congress could have reasoned that aggravated felon LPRs pose a higher risk for recidivism than illegal aliens who did not have all of the benefits of legal permanent resident status to deter them from committing their crimes. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Congress may have deemed LPRs less deserving of a second chance than non-LPRs. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Noting that it may have been wise to eliminate § 212(h) relief for non-LPR aggravated felons as well, we were nonetheless confined by our deferential standard of review to conclude that a rational basis existed for the LPR versus non-LPR distinction. Id. That Taniguchi involved an LPR convicted of an aggravated felony, rather than a crime involving moral turpitude, makes no difference. Taniguchi's rationalethat Congress may have wished to hold LPRs to a higher standard and considered them less deserving of a second chanceshould apply equally regardless of the category of crime the LPR commits. Accord Camacho-Salinas v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 460 F.3d 1343, 1348-49 (11th Cir.2006) (per curiam); see also De Leon-Reynoso v. Ashcroft, 293 F.3d 633, 640 (3d Cir.2002). The rationale focuses on the status of the alien, not the category of the crime committed. The framework for this equal protection challenge thus differs from our analysis concerning an alien's eligibility to apply for statutory relief under § 212(c), where Congress specifically precluded relief based upon offense category. We accordingly deny the petition for review as to Peng's equal protection claim, because a rational basis exists for the seven-year continuous presence requirement of § 212(h).