Opinion ID: 708223
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Statutory Grant of Exclusive Jurisdiction

Text: 40 The Government argues that Barakat and Sharif are challenging an individual determination in a legalization proceeding, and thus must exhaust their administrative remedies by undergoing the deportation proceeding before they are entitled to judicial review of their claim that use of undisclosed classified information to evaluate adjustment-of-status applications violates due process. Because the agency proceeding will not address the due process claim, however, the statutory exhaustion provision does not require the aliens to present their challenge to this INS practice through the exclusive review mechanism for final orders of deportation. See McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., 498 U.S. 479, 483-84, 111 S.Ct. 888, 891-92, 112 L.Ed.2d 1005 (1991) (HRC ) (permitting district court consideration of claims that the INS engaged in unconstitutional procedural practices relating to acceptance of legalization applications). Barakat's and Sharif's due process claim is not unlike the due process violations that the Court found justiciable in HRC, which included routine, arbitrary denial of applications that were not supported by payroll records, maintenance of a secret list of employers whose supporting affidavits were routinely discredited, failure to provide interpreters at interviews, and failure to record or transcribe interviews. See id. at 489 n. 9, 111 S.Ct. at 894 n. 9. Such due process violations concern the implementation of practices to carry out the legalization program, rather than an individual [eligibility] determination. See id. at 498, 111 S.Ct. at 899. Nor would the fact that they prevail on the merits of their purportedly procedural objections have the effect of establishing their entitlement to [adjustment of] status. Id. at 495, 111 S.Ct. at 897. Thus, the aliens are not challenging the particular outcome of the application, but the collateral procedure of using undisclosed classified information that the INS deems generally available in processing legalization applications. See id. at 492, 111 S.Ct. at 896; Campos v. Nail, 940 F.2d 495, 497 (9th Cir.1991) (finding jurisdiction when the plaintiffs do not seek the determination of the merits of any individual deportation order, but challenge a judge's blanket policy on constitutional grounds). Therefore, we conclude that the statutory grant of exclusive appellate jurisdiction for review of deportation orders does not preclude district court jurisdiction over these due process claims.