Opinion ID: 482845
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: the need for evidentiary hearings

Text: 97 Lastly, we turn to the question of whether these habeas petitioners were entitled to evidentiary hearings. The federal courts are vested with broad discretion in considering the propriety of habeas corpus relief. In the words of the controlling statute, [t]he court shall summarily hear and determine the facts, and dispose of the matter as law and justice require. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2243 (1982). It is, however, a bedrock principle that habeas redress concerns only the legality of the custody. McNally v. Hill, Warden, 293 U.S. 131, 139, 55 S.Ct. 24, 27, 79 L.Ed. 238 (1934); Pierre v. United States, 525 F.2d 933, 935-36 (5th Cir.1976); 2 Gordon & Rosenfield, supra, at Sec. 8.7h. See also Matter of Ghalamsiah, 806 F.2d 68, 72 n. 4 (3d Cir.1986) (habeas petitioner, seeking enlargement upon bail while stay of deportation in effect, must show that his detention was illegal to begin with, a prerequisite for habeas corpus relief). Even in the criminal law, where the Constitution provides many more procedural safeguards than are afforded in the course of exclusion proceedings, the availability of habeas relief depends upon proof that the applicant's detention violates the law. Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 312, 83 S.Ct. 745, 756, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963); McNally, supra. And, entitlement to an evidentiary hearing requires a demonstration that a full and fair exposition of the facts was not had in the state court. Harris v. Nelson, 394 U.S. 286, 291, 89 S.Ct. 1082, 1086, 22 L.Ed.2d 281 (1969); Townsend, 372 U.S. at 312, 83 S.Ct. at 756. In all other cases ..., the holding of such a hearing is in the discretion of the district judge. Id. at 318, 83 S.Ct. at 759. 98 In immigration matters, the scope of judicial review on a petition for habeas corpus is more truncated than in the criminal context. In deportation hearings, for example, judicial oversight is customarily limited to the administrative record. 2 Gordon & Rosenfield, supra, at Sec. 8.7g. The statute providing for review of deportation orders, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1105a(a)(4) (1982), explains that, except where a genuine issue of material fact has arisen regarding the petitioner's nationality, 99 ... the petition shall be determined solely upon the administrative record upon which the deportation order is based and the Attorney General's finding of fact, if supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole, shall be conclusive. 100 The circumstance that the present cases involve exclusion proceedings rather than deportation proceedings militates strongly in favor of further circumscription of the claim to an evidentiary hearing. As we have already remarked, see text ante at 10-11, deportable aliens are properly accorded a broader panoply of rights than excludable aliens. See Landon v. Plasencia, 459 U.S. at 25-27, 103 S.Ct. at 325-26. Inasmuch as judicial oversight of deportation efforts does not habitually involve de novo evidentiary hearings, we see no reason to establish a custom and practice requiring such hearings in a district court's habeas review of detentions undertaken incident to exclusion proceedings. The petitioners have been unable to point to any respectable authority in support of their position, and our independent research has revealed none. As stated by two of the leading writers on immigration law, habeas corpus cannot be utilized to review a refusal to grant collateral administrative relief, unrelated to the legality of custody. 2 Gordon & Rosenfield, supra, at Sec. 8.7h. And, we will not permit it to be used in such an unauthorized manner. 101 In the cases before us, the appellants have not shown that their detention violates the law. They have not shown that any of them were denied impartial hearings on an agency level. We have carefully examined the copious administrative record and find substantial evidence therein to support the detention orders--evidence which, in light of the commodious discretion vested in the district director, appears ample to sustain the directives. The petitioners have been unable to point to any credible reason justifying departure from the ordinary course or presenting some special need to take testimony. 102 We will not lightly inundate the district courts with makework hearings. These appellants were lawfully detained and remanded to administrative custody. The continuing legality of that custody has not been brought into any serious question. On the record before us, the district court was not obliged to grant evidentiary hearings.