Opinion ID: 708223
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Alternative Mechanisms for Review

Text: 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