Opinion ID: 708223
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Government's Counterarguments

Text: 17 The Government offers three additional arguments to defeat district court jurisdiction. First, it suggests that a selective enforcement claim in the immigration context is inappropriate, because the decision to enforce the immigration laws is a non-justiciable political question involving foreign policy decisions that are immune from judicial review. Second, the Government claims that if such claims are viable, the statutory scheme provides alternative mechanisms for review in the agency or the appellate courts. Third, the Government argues that even though discretionary claims fall outside the statutory provision for exclusive review and exhaustion, we should decline jurisdiction to consider these claims on prudential ripeness grounds. We consider each of these arguments in turn. 18
19 The Government contends that the courts cannot consider an alien's selective enforcement claim because the Government's discretionary decision implicates foreign policy concerns that are non-justiciable political questions. See, e.g., Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 208-213, 82 S.Ct. 691, 705-708, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962) (discussing foreign policy issues as a basis for the political question doctrine). 20 There is, however, clear precedent for judicial recognition of selective enforcement claims. Although alienage classifications are closely connected to matters of foreign policy and national security, see, e.g., Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 219 n. 19, 102 S.Ct. 2382, 2395 n. 19, 72 L.Ed.2d 786 (1982); Fiallo v. Bell, 430 U.S. 787, 796, 97 S.Ct. 1473, 1480, 52 L.Ed.2d 50 (1977), the judicial branch may examine whether the political branches have used a foreign policy crisis as an excuse for treating aliens arbitrarily, Shahla v. INS, 749 F.2d 561, 563 n. 2 (9th Cir.1984); see also Yassini v. Crosland, 618 F.2d 1356, 1360 (9th Cir.1980) (noting that serious questions might arise if the INS disregarded constitutional protections). [T]he presence of constitutional issues with significant political overtones does not automatically invoke the political question doctrine. INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 942-43, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 2779-80, 77 L.Ed.2d 317 (1983). Thus, we can and do review foreign policy arguments that are offered to justify legislative or executive action when constitutional rights are at stake. Id. Contrary to the Government's suggestion, the foreign policy powers which permit the political branches great discretion to determine which aliens to exclude from entering this country do not authorize those political branches to subject aliens who reside here to a fundamentally different First Amendment associational right. See, e.g., Landon v. Plasencia, 459 U.S. 21, 25-26, 103 S.Ct. 321, 325-326, 74 L.Ed.2d 21 (1982) (explaining the difference between exclusion of an alien upon initial entry and deportation of aliens who have been in the country); see also Charles D. Weisselberg, The Exclusion and Detention of Aliens: Lessons From the Lives of Ellen Knauff and Ignatz Mezei, 143 U.Pa.L.Rev. 933, 939-47 (noting that the power of exclusion stems from the sovereign power of the federal government over its territory). If we were to decline jurisdiction on this basis, we would, in essence, proclaim that the courts have no essential function in ensuring that aliens are not targeted by the INS in retaliation for exercising their acknowledged constitutional rights, and we would allow those rights to be forfeited without redress. Clearly, the foreign policy powers of the political branches do not extend that far. 21
22 We also reject the Government's assertion that the Hobbs Act provisions provide a mechanism by which the courts of appeals may assume jurisdiction over factual issues for which a record cannot be developed in regular INS proceedings. See 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2347(c) (allowing remand to the agency for factual development); 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2347(b)(3) (allowing transfer to a district court for a de novo trial on an ancillary matter). First, the remand provision is not applicable in this instance. See, e.g., Ramirez-Gonzalez v. INS, 695 F.2d 1208, 1213 (9th Cir.1983) (finding that Sec. 2347(c) is inapplicable to INS proceedings, because the regulations provide a means to petition to the BIA to reopen the proceedings, in its stead); Ghorbani v. I.N.S., 686 F.2d 784, 787 n. 4 (9th Cir.1982) (finding that Sec. 1105a(4), which requires judicial review of the administrative record, precludes application of the Hobbs Act provision for remand on matters for which the agency lacks jurisdictional authority). 23 Second, because Sec. 1105a allows transfer to a district court exclusively for de novo review of citizenship claims, the general transfer provision available elsewhere under the Hobbs Act does not apply in the immigration context. Compare 8 U.S.C. Secs. 1105a(a)(5), (7) with 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2347(b)(3). Even those circuits that disagree with this circuit's interpretation that remand under Sec. 2347(c) is not available have declined to apply Sec. 2347(b)(3) to authorize a transfer under Sec. 1105a to a district court for claims not addressable before the IJ and BIA. See, e.g., Coriolan v. INS, 559 F.2d 993, 1003 (5th Cir.1977). 24 The Government mistakenly relies on Public Util. Comm'r of Oregon v. Bonneville Power Admin., 767 F.2d 622 (9th Cir.1985), which held that the courts of appeals have exclusive jurisdiction of actions challenging the constitutionality of administrative proceedings under an act regulating utility rates. Id. at 624-25. That case involved a question of the breadth of the statutorily mandated jurisdiction, where the wording of the statute was much broader than the INS statute in the present case. See id. at 625-26. The statutory jurisdictional mandate in Sec. 1105a is narrower and, in appropriate instances, permits equitable relief in the district court for constitutional and procedural challenges. See McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., 498 U.S. 479, 484, 494, 111 S.Ct. 888, 892, 897, 112 L.Ed.2d 1005 (1991) (interpreting Sec. 1105a in the IRCA context to find district court jurisdiction to hear constitutional and statutory challenges to INS procedures when meaningful judicial review of the statutory and constitutional claims otherwise would be foreclosed). 25
26 The Government also argues that this court should find that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear these selective enforcement claims because of prudential ripeness concerns that are relevant to its jurisdiction to grant equitable relief. In Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967), the Supreme Court established a two-pronged framework for ripeness analysis in the administrative agency context: courts should consider the fitness of the issues for judicial review and the hardship to the parties involved. Id. at 148-49, 87 S.Ct. at 1515-16. The core principle is that statutory requirements should not be construed to cause irreparable injuries to be suffered or the loss of crucial collateral claims. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 331 n. 11, 96 S.Ct. 893, 900-01 n. 11, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). We therefore agree with the Six that their claim is ripe for review, because (1) the chill to their First Amendment rights is an irreparable injury that cannot be vindicated by post-deprivation review and (2) exhaustion through the deportation proceeding would be futile, in that the IJ and BIA cannot consider and develop facts about INS' enforcement policies, practices, or motives, which are not subject to change through further agency interpretation. 27
28 The Supreme Court's overbreadth doctrine rests on the proposition that an overbroad statute has a chilling effect on First Amendment rights that cannot be vindicated through the normal channels of defense to a prosecution: that is, the legal and practical value of the First Amendment right may be destroyed if not vindicated before trial. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 486-89, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 1120-22, 14 L.Ed.2d 22 (1965). The loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury. Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 2689, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976). Courts thus grant extraordinary relief because [j]oining organizations that participate in public debate, making contributions to them, and attending their meetings are activities that enjoy substantial First Amendment protection so that the duration of a trial is an 'intolerably long' period during which to permit the continuing impairment of First Amendment rights. In re Asbestos School Litigation (Pfizer Inc. v. The Honorable James T. Giles), 46 F.3d 1284, 1294 (3d Cir.1994). Even in the context of state criminal prosecutions, where federalism concerns raise additional barriers to the federal courts' exercise of equitable jurisdiction, federal courts refuse to abstain in cases involving a bad faith prosecution that has little expectation of a valid conviction or is initiated to retaliate for or discourage the exercise of constitutional rights. See, e.g., Lewellen v. Raff, 843 F.2d 1103, 1109 (8th Cir.1988) (finding that the district court need not abstain when state prosecutors brought charges against an African American attorney in retaliation for his exercise of constitutional rights), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1033, 109 S.Ct. 1171, 103 L.Ed.2d 229 (1989). We find that the perpetual threat of deportation based on group affiliation constitutes the kind of irreparable injury that is relevant to the ripeness inquiry here. 29
30 We also agree with the Six that exhaustion would be a futile exercise because the agency does not have jurisdiction to review a selective enforcement claim. Lopez-Telles, 564 F.2d at 1304. If the agency lacks authority to resolve the constitutional claims, there is little point to requiring exhaustion. Xiao v. Barr, 979 F.2d 151, 154 (9th Cir.1992). Furthermore, we customarily decline to apply the prudential ripeness doctrine when exhaustion would be a futile attempt to challenge a fixed agency position. See, e.g., El Rescate Legal Serv. v. Executive Office of Immigration Review, 959 F.2d 742, 747 (9th Cir.1991). Other circuits have similarly found exhaustion futile unless there is genuine doubt as to what is going to happen in the administrative process. Rafeedie v. I.N.S., 880 F.2d 506, 514 (D.C.Cir.1989). 31 Contrary to the Government's assertion, our earlier opinion in this case is not dispositive here. See American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 970 F.2d at 510-12. We held that prudential concerns weighed against the district court's assuming jurisdiction of the unconstitutional-as-applied challenge to the 1952 Act, because the factual record developed in the agency proceeding to support the application of the statute would assist our review of that claim. Id. at 510-511. In contrast, this case does not involve a facial or as-applied challenge to a statute. These selective enforcement claims are not moot now, and the speculative possibility that they may be rendered moot in the future is not sufficient to require futile exhaustion of administrative remedies. Therefore, we hold that the district court properly exercised jurisdiction over the nonimmigrant aliens' selective enforcement claims. 32 2. The Permanent Resident Aliens, Hamide and Shehadeh 33 The two permanent resident aliens, Hamide and Shehadeh, also contend that the district court had jurisdiction to consider their selective enforcement claims. Unlike the Six, Hamide and Shehadeh have been charged solely under provisions, in both the 1952 Act and the IMMACT, that are based on affiliation with disfavored political organizations. Because the posture in which their claims are presented is different from that of the claims of the Six, we consider them separately. 34 The basis for jurisdiction over Hamide's and Shehadeh's claims is essentially the same as that found to support district court jurisdiction for the Six. The exclusive mechanism for judicial review of a final deportation order does not provide a means of review of a selective enforcement claim for which the IJ and BIA lack adjudicatory authority. See the discussion in Part I.A.1.a. supra. Although the Government asserts that no factual development is necessary beyond that which the Government will provide in the deportation proceeding as part of its case under the IMMACT, the agency proceeding cannot develop a factual record regarding patterns and practices of the INS treatment of aliens who may be similarly situated supporters of lawful activities of alleged terrorist organizations. Id. Thus, the legal arguments in Part I.A.1.a. apply as well to Hamide and Shehadeh: their selective enforcement claims can be considered only in the district court. 35 The Government argues--and the district court ultimately agreed--that the ripeness concerns relevant to these claims are different because the motive for targeting Hamide and Shehadeh cannot be considered truly pretextual, in that both the 1952 Act and the IMMACT provisions under which they are currently charged treat some aspect of affiliation as a basis for deportation. The Government essentially argues that the legal issue addressed in the deportation proceeding--how the IMMACT's terrorist activity provisions should be interpreted and whether the aliens' actions satisfy those requirements--is the same issue that must be addressed, under the second prong of the selective enforcement claim, to determine whether the Government unconstitutionally has singled out these aliens on the basis of an impermissible motive of retaliation for exercise of their First Amendment rights. 36 We conclude that the claim that Hamide and Shehadeh assert here is broader than that which they may raise in a defense of deportation. The legal issue that the IJ and the BIA will address is whether the aliens' actions satisfy the requirements of the IMMACT's terrorist activity provisions; however, the issue underlying the selective enforcement claim of impermissible motive is whether the support of lawful activities of a disfavored organization that may also engage in unlawful terrorist activities provides a constitutional basis for deportation of a permanent resident alien. The selective enforcement claim necessarily imposes a different focus and requires the court to consider patterns of INS prosecutions rather than a particular application of a statute. Montes v. Thornburgh, 919 F.2d 531, 535 (9th Cir.1990) (finding Sec. 1105a inapplicable to suits alleging a pattern and practice of constitutional violations). 37 We hold, therefore, that the district court erred in declining jurisdiction on ripeness grounds, and we remand for further proceedings in accord with this decision.