Opinion ID: 564781
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Logical Basis of Denial of Motion

Text: 26 Finally, we observe that the logic of the BIA decision is deeply puzzling. A motion to reopen or to reconsider is not a request for a new decision. Rather, it permits a decisionmaker to reevaluate the original decision. Such motions are typically permitted because they assist the decisionmaker in correctly resolving the litigant's claim on the merits. Naturally, this policy must be balanced against the desire to achieve finality in litigation. 11 C. Wright & A. Miller Sec. 2857, at 159. Here, however, the BIA did not rest on considerations of finality in refusing to hear petitioner's motion. Rather, the BIA dismissed the motion as if it were a new request for Section 212(c) relief; petitioner was deemed ineligible because he was already finally deportable and no longer a permanent resident. As Judge Williams stated in his dissenting opinion in Rivera v. INS, 810 F.2d 540, 543 (5th Cir.), reh'g denied, 816 F.2d 677 (1987): 27 This is precisely as if a court on petition for rehearing denied it not on the merits but on the ground that the petitioner no longer had the right to petition for a rehearing jurisdictionally because he had lost the original decision in the court. Lawbooks will be searched in vain for any justification for this remarkable conclusion. 28 The BIA might have desired to entirely foreclose permanent resident aliens from filing motions to reopen or reconsider Section 212(c) decisions. Whatever the BIA's motivation, we are bound to evaluate only the reasoning supplied to us. See NLRB v. Indianapolis Mack, 802 F.2d at 285. That reasoning provides no basis for the decision.