Court Opinion

ID: 9462524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:42:57.569842+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:37.844514
License: Public Domain

GIBBONS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Although the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 551 et seq. (hereinafter APA), has been in effect since 1946, and the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq. (hereinafter INA), since 1952, new issues occasionally arise concerning their interrelationship. The two cases sub judice squarely confront this court with an issue of first impression: does the mandatory disqualification provision of § 5(c) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 554(d),1 govern the review by the Board of Immigration Appeals (hereinafter BIA) of decisions of an immigration judge, specifically those denying adjustment of status, a request for a waiver of a ground of excludability and a petition for suspension of deportation under §§ 245, 212(h) and 243(h) respectively of the INA, 8 *150U.S.C. §§ 1255, 1182(h), 1253(h)?2 If the APA applies, we must reverse because the affidavits submitted by the Board members3 who were employed as counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (hereinafter INS) at the date of oral argument do not, as § 5(e) requires, deny participation or advice in a “factually related case.”4 If it does not, we should, as the majority holds, affirm the Board’s decision on the ground that procedural due process was not violated by the mere combination of such agency functions as prosecution and adjudication in the same Board members. See, e. g., Withrow v. Larkin, 421 U.S. 35, 95 S.Ct. 1456, 43 L.Ed.2d 712 (1975); Marcello v. Bonds, 349 U.S. 302, 75 S.Ct. 757, 99 L.Ed. 1107 (1955); Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Accardi, 349 U.S. 280, 75 S.Ct. 746, 99 L.Ed. 1074 (1955).
I conclude that § 5(c) of the APA governs these proceedings before the BIA. In my view the majority opinion ignores the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Marcello v. Bonds in extending the exemption of deportation hearings from coverage by the APA to administrative review of those hearings by the BIA. By so holding the majority ignores as well an express congressional pronouncement and sound policy reasons in favor of APA coverage.
I
In order to determine whether or not the procedural requirements of the APA govern BIA proceedings, a brief review of the interrelationship between that statute and the INA is in order. Until 1950 it was generally thought, and with good reason, that deportation hearings were exempt *151from APA coverage. Section 7(a) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 556(b), provides in part that:
This subchapter does not supersede the conduct of specified classes of proceedings, in whole or in part, by or before boards or other employees specially provided for by or designated under statute. 5
Immigration inspectors who presided over deportation hearings were “specially provided for by or designated pursuant to” § 16 of the Immigration Act. Act of February 5, 1917, 39 Stat. 885. Moreover, § 5 of the APA applied only to cases of “adjudication required by statute” and there was no express requirement for any hearing or adjudication in the provision of the Immigration Act of 1917 authorizing deportation.6 Act of February 5, 1917, 39 Stat. 887. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Saclarides v. Shaughnessy, 180 F.2d 687 (2d Cir. 1950); Azzollini v. Watkins, 172 F.2d 897 (2d Cir. 1949). Contra, United States ex rel. Trinler v. Carusi, 166 F.2d 457 (3d Cir.), rev’d on other grounds, 168 F.2d 1014 (3d Cir. 1948).
In Wong Yang Sung v. McGrath, 339 U.S. 33, 70 S.Ct. 445, 94 L.Ed. 616 (1950), however, the Supreme Court held that the APA governed deportation hearings because while not statutorily mandated they were constitutionally required. 339 U.S. at 50, 70 S.Ct. 445. Justice Jackson, writing for the majority of the Court, announced that “it is the plain duty of the courts, regardless of their views of the wisdom or policy of the Act [the APA], to construe this remedial legislation to eliminate, so far as its text permits, the practices it condemns.” 339 U.S. at 45, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626. Applying this broad policy to the issue of deportation hearings, he continued:
The Administrative Procedure Act did not go so far as to require a complete separation of investigating and prosecuting functions from adjudicating functions. But that the safeguards it did set up were intended to ameliorate the evils from the commingling of functions as exemplified here is beyond doubt. And this commingling, if objectionable anywhere, would seem to be particularly so in the deportation proceeding, where we frequently meet with a voteless class of litigants who not only lack the influence of citizens, but who are strangers to the laws and customs in which they find themselves involved and who often do not even understand the tongue in which they are accused. Nothing in the nature of the parties or proceedings suggests that we should strain to exempt deportation proceedings from reforms in administrative procedure applicable generally to federal agencies. 339 U.S. at 46, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626.
Despite its potential for wider application in immigration proceedings, the Wong Yang Sung decision was strictly interpreted by lower federal courts to govern only deportation and not exclusion hearings. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Frisch v. Miller, 181 F.2d 360 (5th Cir. 1950). Congress, moreover, in a rider to the Supplementary Appropriations Act of 1951, 64 Stat. 1048, negated the effect of Wong Yang Sung by specifically exempting deportation and exclusion hearings from the provisions of Sections 5, 7 and 8 of the APA.7 Thus, until passage of the INA in 1952 it was clear that the procedural requirements of the APA did not govern deportation and exclusion hearings. Whether or not the APA would apply to other immigration proceedings, however, was never determined.
*152While the INA explicitly repealed the Appropriations Act rider, 8 U.S.C. § 155a, it did not specifically incorporate the holding of Wong Yang Sung with respect to deportation hearings. Instead, Congress consciously adopted a special administrative procedure which mirrored in part analogous provisions of the APA. See H.Rep. No. 1365, 82d Cong. 2d Sess (1952), 2 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News, p. 1710. The Supreme Court in Marcello v. Bonds, supra, 349 U.S. at 306-10, 75 S.Ct. 757, compared §§ 242(b) and 101(b)(4) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1252(b) and 1101(b)(4), with §§ 5, 6 and 7 of the APA, 5 U.S.C. §§ 554, 555 and 556, and concluded that Congress had modified and adapted the APA hearings provisions to the particular needs of the deportation process.8 The Court held that the INA hearings provisions expressly superseded those of the APA despite a pointed dissent by Justice Black who, joined by Justice Frankfurter, thought the more demanding features of the APA should govern. 349 U.S. 315-19, 75 S.Ct. 757 (Black, J. dissenting).
But the Court in Marcello v. Bonds did not discuss the relationship between the APA and other immigration proceedings besides deportation hearings. What the Court did establish in that decision, however, was a method of analysis to employ in discovering the interrelationship between the two acts. A court must compare the INA with analogous provisions of the APA to determine if Congress meant to adapt the procedural safeguards of the APA to the particular needs of the INS. In cases of doubt, the court should refer to the legislative history of both acts for guidance. But the fundamental presumption underlying this analysis is that where Congress has not specifically deviated from the APA by either adaptations of its provisions within the INA itself or statements in the legislative history, the APA should govern. 349 U.S. at 310, 75 S.Ct. 757. This presumption is consistent with the language and policy of § 12 of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 559, which states in relevant part that a subsequent statute like the INA “may not be held to supersede or modify this subchapter [which includes § 5(c)] . . . except to the extent that it does so expressly.” See, e. g., Rusk v. Cort, 369 U.S. 367, 82 S.Ct. 787, 7 L.Ed.2d 809 (1962); Marcello v. Bonds, supra, 349 U.S. at 310, 75 S.Ct. 757; Shaughnessy v. Pedreiro, 349 U.S. 48, 75 S.Ct. 591, 99 L.Ed. 868 (1955).
II
Careful scrutiny of the provisions of the INA discloses that the BIA is not mentioned anywhere in the 119 page Act. Despite vigorous attempts to provide for the creation by statute of the BIA, the INA left it to be established and governed only by regulations of the Attorney General pursuant to his authority under § 103(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1103(a). The Attorney General has established a Board composed of a chairman and four other members and has outlined its broad appellate jurisdiction. 8 C.F.R. § 3.1(a). It is clear from the scope9 and *153operation of the Board’s appellate jurisdiction that an appeal must be considered as a distinct proceeding in need of some procedural safeguards. The Board, for example, does not consider itself bound by the findings made by an immigration judge. A former chairman of the Board has stated that:
Unlike appellate courts, on questions of fact the Board is not limited to a determination if there was substantial evidence upon which the finding of the Special Inquiry Officer was based. The Board has the power and authority to review the record and makes its own conclusions as to facts. ... In a word, the Board may make a de novo review of the record and makes its considerations and findings irrespective of those made by the Special Inquiry Officer.
Finucane, Procedure Before the Board of Immigration Appeals, 31 Int. Rel. 26 (Jan. 22, 1954).
See, e. g., Noverola-Bolaina v. Immigration & Nat. Serv., 395 F.2d 131, 135-36 (9th Cir. 1968); Matter of B-, 7 I. & N. Dec. 1, 36 (1956). But the regulations governing the BIA contain no mandatory disqualification provision similar to § 5(c) of the APA or § 242(b) of the INA. Thus, if the majority position is adopted, the alien has no greater procedural protection at Board proceedings than the requirements of the due process clause even though he does have the safeguards afforded by § 242(b) of the INA during proceedings conducted by immigration judges. This anomaly is never discussed by the majority but is probably attributable to their assumption that greater procedural protections are afforded at hearings conducted by immigration judges only because Congress expressly granted them in § 242(b).
This assumption, however, conflicts with the reasoning of Marcello v. Bonds and the legislative history of the INA. The House adopted a proposal to give the BIA statutory status but this provision was eliminated in conference. See 98 Cong. Rec. 4401; H.R.Rep. No. 1365, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. 36 (1952); S.Rep. No. 1137, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. pt. 2 at 8. (Minority Rep. on S. 2550) (1952). The reason for the rejection of a statutory BIA, according to Congressional testimony, was to prevent an independent board set up within the Department of Justice from possessing the authority to set aside the decisions of the head of that department, the Attorney General. See 98 Cong. Rec. 5778-5781 (1952). Thus Congress made an accommodation with the portion of § 5(c) of the APA which prohibits an agency employee engaged in adjudication from being “responsible to or subject to the supervision or direction of any officer, employee or agent engaged in the performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for an agency.” But this decision cannot be interpreted to mean that Congress intended that all proceedings before the Board be exempt from the APA. Indeed the evidence suggests a contrary view.
Senator McCarran, the senatorial sponsor of both the APA and the INA as well as the leader of the opposition to the statutory creation of the BIA, concluded that:
Except in cases of proceedings under section 235(c), relating to security cases, the *154provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act are made applicable to all proceedings before the Board of Immigration Appeals, thereby providing judicial review in exclusion cases. 98 Cong. Rec. 5778 (1952) (remarks by Senator McCarran) (emphasis added).
Senator McCarran’s interpretation is supported by the language of the proposals for a statutory BIA themselves, which did not provide for any special procedural safeguards. See 98 Cong. Rec. 4401 (remarks of Representative Celler), 5778 (remarks of Senator Moody). Presumably no procedural safeguards were included in these statutory proposals because even these congressmen believed that the APA would govern review proceedings.
Thus, applying the same reasoning and analysis which Justice Clark employed in Marcello v. Bonds, I conclude that § 5(c) governs these review proceedings. The majority opinion rejects this conclusion for two reasons. First, the majority urges that leaving the initial hearing examiner exempt from the APA while requiring the Board to comply would be an anomalous result. There is no such anomaly, because Congress in the INA dealt specifically with the procedural safeguards applicable to the initial hearing, but did not deal with the nonstatutory Board of Appeals. Next the majority argues that the language of § 242(b) of the INA expressly stating that the procedure outlined for determining deportability “shall be the sole and exclusive procedure” should also apply to the Board. This argument, however, ignores the fact that no procedural safeguards have been outlined in the statute for the conduct of Board proceedings and the additional fact that the Board has been given a wider scope of jurisdiction than just review of deportation decisions. Moreover, as Justice Clark argued in Marcello v. Bonds, this provision of § 242(b) refers to Congress’ intent to exempt initial deportation hearings from APA coverage. It does not address the question of what procedures should govern the review of those proceedings which the Attorney General has directed the BIA to provide.
Ill
The most important reasons for applying § 5(c) of the APA to these cases, of- course, are not these basic rules of statutory interpretation but rather the policy and purpose of the APA which Justice Jackson first announced in the context of immigration proceedings in Wong Yang Sung. While the impact of the Wong Yang Sung holding upon deportation hearings has been substantially altered by later cases and the passage of the INA, its broad policy analysis is still applicable to other immigration proceedings.
Certainly the commingling of the functions of advocacy and adjudication at stake in these cases was one of the undesirable features of the administrative process which the APA was designed to remedy. See Rep. Atty. Gen. Comm. Ad. Proc. 56 (1941), S. Doc. No. 8, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 56 (1941). Given Justice Jackson’s direction to the courts “to construe this remedial legislation to eliminate, so far as its text permits, the practices it condemns”,10 we should not hesitate to extend the procedural safeguards of the APA to cases .before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Moreover, just as Justice Jackson concluded in the case of deportation hearings, “nothing in the nature of the parties or proceedings suggests that we should strain to exempt . [these] proceedings from reforms in administrative procedure applicable generally to federal agencies.” 339 U.S. at 46, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626. Finally, since Board appeals are often intimately connected with a prior deportation hearing, the absence of procedural safeguards afforded to a petitioner at this stage of the deportation process is as “particularly” objectionable as the absence of such safeguards at the hearing itself. We are just as likely to meet a “voteless class of litigants who not only lack the influence of citizens, but who are strangers to the laws and customs in which they find themselves in*155volved and who often do not even understand the tongue in which they are accused” 11 at the appellate stage, because of the broad right of review granted by the Attorney General’s regulations, as we are at the initial hearing.
Even if the legislative history did not lead me to the conclusion that the mandatory disqualification provision of § 5(c) of the APA applies, these policy considerations would. The APA is precisely the type of remedial statute which provides courts with a broad congressional judgment regarding administrative policy to which they should refer in establishing rules of decision in this area, especially in cases of first impression. Even if not literally applicable, the statute is a significant precedent. Those familiar with the history of the interrelationship of the APA and INA will recognize immediately that there has been a continuous dialogue between the courts and Congress on such issues as now confront this court. See, e. g. Note, Deportation and Exclusion: A Continuing Dialogue Between Congress and the Courts, 71 Yale L.J. 760 (1962). With this in mind I believe we should hold that the APA applies and expect Congress to overrule us as if we have misinterpreted its original intention or erroneously anticipated its later judgment.
In summary, § 5(e) of the APA governs these appeals and requires us to remand it to the Board to determine if the members in question had participated or advised in a “factually related case.” I am not at all concerned, as the majority appears to be, that “[t]o apply the APA in these cases would interject needless complexity into what is designed to be a discretionary process.” Complexities are the very sinews of liberty, and simplification, in the sanctioning context, almost invariably the weapon of oppressors.

. An employee or agent engaged in the performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for an agency in a case may not, in that or a factually related case, participate or advise in the decision, recommended decision, or agency review pursuant to section 557 of this title, except as witness or counsel in public proceedings. This subsection does not apply—
(A) in determining applications for initial licenses;
(B) to proceedings involving the validity or application of rates, facilities, or practices of public utilities or carriers; or
(C) to the agency or a member or members of the body comprising the agency, (emphasis added).

. It is clear that the decision of the BIA is a “final disposition” within the meaning of “order” and “adjudication” as defined by 5 U.S.C. § 551(6), (7). See Foti v. Immigration & Nat. Serv., 375 U.S. 217, 84 S.Ct. 306, 11 L.Ed.2d 281 (1963). Thus the cases sub judice are easily distinguishable from ITT v. Electrical Workers, 419 U.S. 428, 95 S.Ct. 600, 42 L.Ed.2d 558 (1975), where the Supreme Court held that § 5(c) of the APA did not govern proceedings conducted under § 10(k) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 160(k).

. In Giambanco v. INS, Chairman Milhollan and Member Appleman swore that they did not participate in any way in the case against petitioner, that they had no knowledge of the case prior to becoming members of the Board, and that they were not influenced by the fact that they knew the attorney arguing the case. (Exhibits A and B in the Addendum of Respondent’s Brief).
In Cisternas-Estay v. INS, however, the affidavits indicate, contrary to petitioner’s argument, that Member Appleman who had argued the case before the Board, disqualified himself and, therefore, did not, participate in the decision. Chairman Milhollan made the same representations as he had in his affidavit in Giambanco. Therefore, this case must also be remanded to the Board in order to ascertain whether or not Milhollan had been involved in a “factually related case.”
In both cases, I do not think that the fact that the members in question swear that they “had no knowledge of the case” prior to their elevation to the Board is sufficiently clear to warrant a conclusion that there was no involvement in a “factually related case.” The Government wants to leave the issue of disqualification to the discretion of the member himself. Certainly a member of the Board may disqualify himself pursuant to § 7(a) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 556(b). At issue in this case, I think, is the question of mandatory disqualification under § 5(c) not voluntary disqualification under § 7(a).

. The term “factually related case” is nowhere defined in the statute. A generic meaning might include a case involving the same subject area, such as deportation, exclusion, adjustment of status, etc. I do not think this interpretation was intended by the draftsmen since its vast potential for disqualification would cripple the administration of the law. Moreover, the legislative history and statutory language of the APA, as was emphasized in Wong Yang Sung v. McGrath, 339 U.S. 33, 70 S.Ct. 445, 94 L.Ed. 616 (1950), do not envision a total separation of functions. See generally U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Administrative Procedure Act: Legislative History 24— 25, 237, 263, 361-62 (1946). A more precise, and I think intended, meaning for this factual relationship would include cases deriving from “a common nucleus of operative fact,” the same test used in the area of pendent jurisdiction. See United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 1138, 16 L.Ed.2d 218, 228 (1966). Some support for this definition can be found in American Cyanamid Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 363 F.2d 757, 768 (6th Cir. 1966). See generally Federal Trade Commission v. Cement Institute, 333 U.S. 638, 68 S.Ct. 793, 92 L.Ed. 1010 (1948); Note, Prejudice and the Administrative Process, 59 Nw. U. L. Rev. 216, 231 (1964).

. Until its amendment during recodification in 1966, § 7(a) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 1006(a), read:
Nothing in this act shall be deemed to supersede the conduct of specified classes of proceedings in whole or part by or before boards or other officers specially provided for by or designated pursuant to statute.

. There is also no specific exemption for the INS in § 2(a)(1) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 551(1).

. This provision was later codified in 8 U.S.C. § 155a.

. Section 242(b) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b), provides a more restrictive mandatory disqualification provision than its counterpart under § 5(c) of the APA. It provides in pertinent part that:
No special inquiry officer shall conduct a proceeding in any case under this section in which he shall have participated in investigative functions or in which he shall have participated (except as provided in this subsection) in prosecuting functions.

. (b) Appellate jurisdiction. Appeals shall lie to the Board of Immigration Appeals from the following:
(1) Decisions of special inquiry officers in exclusion cases, as provided in Part 236 of this chapter.
(2) Decisions of special inquiry officers in deportation cases, as provided in Part 242 of this chapter, except that no appeal shall lie from an order of a special inquiry officer under § 244.1 of this chapter granting voluntary departure within a period of at least 30 days, if the sole ground of appeal is that a greater period of departure time should have been fixed.
(3) Decisions on applications for the exercise of the discretionary authority contained in section 212(c) of the act, as provided in Part 212 of this chapter.
(4) Decisions involving administrative fines and penalties, including mitigation thereof, as provided in Part 280 of this chapter.
*153(5) Decisions on petitions filed in accordance with section 204 of the act (except petitions to accord preference classifications under section 203(a)(3) or section 203(a)(6) of the act, or a petition on behalf of a child described in section 101(b)(1)(F) of the act), and decisions on requests for revalidation and decisions revoking the approval of such petitions, in accordance with section 205 of the act, as provided in Parts 204 and 205, respectively, of this chapter.
(6) Decisions on applications for the exercise of the discretionary authority contained in section 212(d)(3) of the act as provided in Part 212 of this chapter.
(7) Determinations relating to bond, parole, or detention of an alien as provided in Part 242 of this chapter.
(8) Decisions of special inquiry officers in rescission of adjustment of status cases, as provided in Part 246 of this chapter.
(c) Jurisdiction by certification. The Commissioner, or any other duly authorized officer of the Service, or the Board may in any case arising under paragraph (b) of this section require certification of such case to the Board.

. Wong Yang Sung v. McGrath, supra, 339 U.S. at 45, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626.

. Id. at 46, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626.