Opinion ID: 510206
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: 2 Margaret Randall's pleas for authorization to remain in the United States permanently commenced in 1984; Immigration (McCarran-Walter) Act 1 prescriptions then in effect authorized the executive branch, if specified terms are met, to exclude aliens on ideological grounds. See 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(a)(28) (1982) (rendering excludable aliens who believe in communism or anarchism, write about those doctrines, or belong to an organization that promotes those doctrines); see generally Shapiro, Ideological Exclusions: Closing the Border to Political Dissidents, 100 HARV.L.REV. 930 (1987). The law of the United States, as ordered by Congress for 1988, has changed. It is now impermissible to deny a visa or an application for permanent resident status because of any past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations which, if engaged in by a United States citizen in the United States, would be protected under the Constitution. Foreign Relations Authorization Act, PUB.L.NO. 100-204, Sec. 901(a), 101 Stat. 1399, 1399-1400 (1987). 2 3 Randall's case is thus set in a time of transition. The government once opposed her application for permanent residency on the ground that her writings advocated the doctrines of world communism and therefore made her excludable under section 1182(a)(28). That ground is not currently available to the executive. See Allende v. Shultz, 845 F.2d 1111, 1121 (1st Cir.1988). It therefore appears that the large question initially raised--whether Margaret Randall could regain United States citizenship--is now reduced to the question--when can she regain it. 3 4 To render comprehensible the conundrum this appeal presents, we first describe the statutory and regulatory complex relevant to status adjustment applications, and then set out the significant facts and procedural history in Randall's case.