Opinion ID: 479151
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Broad Statutory Mandate of the Immigration and Naturalization Service

Text: 4 In reviewing the INS' discharge of its duties, we must bear in mind the limited scope of our inquiry. Our precedents  'have long recognized the power to expel or exclude aliens as a fundamental sovereign attribute exercised by the Government's political departments largely immune from judicial control.'  Fiallo v. Bell, 430 U.S. 787, 792, 97 S.Ct. 1473, 1477, 52 L.Ed.2d 50 (1977) (quoting Shaughnessy v. Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 210, 73 S.Ct. 625, 628, 97 L.Ed. 956 (1953)). The political branches, of course, must respect the procedural requirements of due process. As Justice Frankfurter has observed, however, [t]hat the formulation of these policies is entrusted exclusively to Congress has become about as firmly embedded in the legislative and judicial tissues of our body politic as any aspect of our government. Galvan v. Press, 347 U.S. 522, 531, 74 S.Ct. 737, 742, 98 L.Ed. 911 (1954). In accordance with Congress' plenary authority to regulate aliens, the Court has recognized that some congressional rules, validly applied to aliens, would be unacceptable if applied to citizens. Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 80, 96 S.Ct. 1883, 1891, 48 L.Ed.2d 478 (1976). 5 In the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (the Act), 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1101 et seq. (1982), Congress exercised its plenary power over immigration. The statute regulates the conditions under which aliens may enter and remain in the United States, and vests in the Attorney General broad authority to enforce these conditions. The Act directs that illegal aliens are to be deported by order of the Attorney General upon a determination that they were excludable at the time of their entry into the United States or that they entered the country without inspection. Id. Sec. 1251(a) (setting forth categories of deportable aliens). To fulfill this statutory mandate, the Attorney General is authorized to establish such regulations ... and perform such other acts as he deems necessary. Id. Sec. 1103(a). The INS, in turn, possesses the delegated authority of the Attorney General to enforce the immigration and nationality laws. See 8 C.F.R. Sec. 2.1 (1985). 6 While the Attorney General and his delegates possess broad latitude in enforcing the Act, they must respect the procedural rights Congress has granted to aliens facing deportation proceedings. INS determinations of deportability are made in an adversarial hearing before an immigration officer, following notice to the alien of the specific charges against him. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1252(b). At this hearing the alien has the right to be represented by counsel, to introduce evidence, and to cross-examine evidence put on by the INS. Id.; 8 C.F.R. Sec. 242.16. The alien may appeal the immigration judge's decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), 8 C.F.R. Secs. 236.7 & 242.21, and the Board's decisions in turn are reviewable by the United States Courts of Appeal. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1105a(a). 7 Congress has established various avenues for obtaining an exemption from deportation. Applying for political asylum is one such exemption. The Refugee Act of 1980 requires the INS, under procedures established by the Attorney General, to grant political asylum to any applicant who qualifies as a refugee. Id. Sec. 1158(a); see also 8 C.F.R. Part 208 (1985) (procedures for reviewing applications for asylum). A refugee, in turn, is defined as a person who is outside any country of that person's nationality and who is unwilling or unable to return to his country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1101(a)(42)(A). An alien seeking refugee status has the burden of establishing that he meets the statutory standard as a refugee in order to qualify for asylum. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 208.5. 8 To seek asylum, an alien may apply to an INS district director. Id. Sec. 208.3(a). The district director's decision is not subject to review, id. Sec. 208.8(c), but the alien may renew the application in the event that the INS later begins deportation proceedings against him. If the INS has already commenced deportation proceedings against him, an alien may apply for refugee status to the immigration judge who is presiding over the pending proceeding. 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1253; 8 C.F.R. Secs. 208.3(b). An alien may seek review of the immigration judge's asylum decision by the normal appeal route. 9 Whether the asylum application comes before a district director or an immigration judge, INS regulations require the decisionmaker to request an advisory opinion from the State Department's Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (BHRHA). 8 C.F.R. Sec. 208.7; Sec. 208.10(b). The purpose of this requirement is to assure that the INS draws upon the expertise of the State Department in refugee matters. When such an advisory opinion is sought from the BHRHA, the Office of Asylum Affairs (OAA) is primarily responsible for preparing it. Within the OAA, the official responsible for applications submitted by aliens from Latin American, Central American, and Caribbean countries is a former Foreign Service officer and now a part-time contract employee of BHRHA. The same official has reviewed applications for asylum since 1974. After reviewing the available materials, and sometimes drawing upon the country-specific expertise of other State Department employees, he issues an opinion on each application. The opinion is reviewed by the Public Policy Officer for the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs at the State Department. The opinion letter is then signed by the Director of OAA and forwarded to INS. 10 When the application returns to INS, the applicant may inspect, explain, and rebut the Bureau's advisory opinion. 8 C.F.R. Sec. 208.10(b). The INS decisionmaker must examine the individual asylum applicant personally before resolving the application. Id. Sec. 208.6. In the vast majority of cases, the INS has denied Salvadorans' applications for asylum. 11 In contrast with asylum, which is a statutory exemption from deportation for individual aliens, Extended Voluntary Departure (EVD) is a discretionary suspension of deportation proceedings applicable to particular groups of aliens. While the Attorney General has exercised his discretion to suspend deportation proceedings against nationals of other countries for a variety of reasons, he has declined to grant EVD status either to all Salvadorans or to a more narrowly defined subgroup. In making this determination, the Attorney General cited both political and economic factors. Letter from Attorney General William French Smith to Congressman Lawrence J. Smith (July 19, 1983), Jt. App. tab. 18, at 2. Thus, the legality of a Salvadoran's presence in the United States depends on either a valid entry visa, a grant of political asylum, or the receipt of another exemption, from the Act's provisions.