Court Opinion

ID: 9499241
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:41:55.152947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:22.133967
License: Public Domain

WARDLAW, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I, too, agree with most of the majority’s opinion. However, I also agree with Judges Bybee and Silverman that a remand under INS v. Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 123 S.Ct. 353, 154 L.Ed.2d 272 (2002), is in order. Although the BIA’s ruling in Matter of Jimenez-Lopez, 20 I. & N. Dec. 738 (BIA 1993), implicitly controls this decision, the agency must be given an opportunity to make an explicit holding that the relevant admissibility date for a special agricultural worker (“SAW”) applicant is the date of admission as a lawful temporary resident. I am persuaded that this is the correct reading of the SAW provisions. As the BIA stated in Jimenez-Lopez, ad*1016justment of status under the SAW provisions “involves a different procedure” whereby the applicant’s status is adjusted to “that of a lawful permanent resident on the basis of a fixed schedule, without regard for the alien’s admissibility at that time.” Id. at 742.