Opinion ID: 482845
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: the petitioners' predicament

Text: 57 Against the backdrop of this statutory/regulatory mosaic, it can be seen that these appellants are currently detained in pursuance of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1225(b), pending the final resolution of exclusion proceedings. As the record bears out, each and all of them have been found preliminarily, and for a variety of reasons, to be excludable under the provisions of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182. All have requested interim parole, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(d)(5), but the INS district director has exercised his discretion to deny that dispensation, concluding that it would not be in the public interest to furlough any of the petitioners. Cobb found, inter alia, that the appellants did not qualify for parole under 8 C.F.R. Sec. 212.5(a) and that each of them was likely to abscond if left at liberty. Three different district judges have upheld these determinations. 58 The petitioners-appellants, in arguing that their habeas applications should not have been rejected, offer a salmagundi of grounds for our lucubration. Some of them are so tenuous or insubstantial that they do not merit discussion--or even comment. There are, however, four general points which deserve further consideration. First, the appellants claim that their continuing detention violates the due process clause of the fifth amendment to the federal Constitution. Second, they argue that Cobb's decisions to deny parole constituted flagrant abuses of his discretion. Third, they urge that their sequestration by the INS under the current regulations transgresses their rights to apply for asylum under the Refugee Act of 1980, Pub.L. No. 96-212, 94 Stat. 102 (1980). Lastly, they contend that, at the very least, evidentiary hearings should have been held below (and that the district court's refusal to do so constituted reversible error). We will address each of these contentions in turn.