Court Opinion

ID: 9464123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:25:30.069156+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:28.092629
License: Public Domain

SNEED, Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result):
I concur in the result reached by the court. The heart of this case is whether Matter of Harris, Interim Decision 2336 (Board of Immigration Appeals, 1974) was properly decided. If it was, we should affirm the Board’s determination in this case. If it was not, we should reverse the Board’s determination and remand for further proceedings. I join the court in reversing because in my view the dissenting members of the Board in Matter of Harris properly construed 8 U.S.C. § 1184(d). A valid marriage concluded “within a period of ninety days after the alien’s arrival” is what is necessary to require the Attorney General to “record the lawful admission for permanent residence of the alien . . .” provided he or she is “otherwise admissible”. Ibid.
The petitioner meets those requirements so far as this record reveals. The statute does not require that the marriage be a satisfactory one at the time the Service acts on the petition of the alien. Nor does it require that it be undissolved at that time. I reach this result without relying on Bark v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 511 F.2d 1200 (9th Cir. 1975), which involved a different provision of the immigration laws, viz. 8 U.S.C. § 1255. The teaching that develops in the case law interpreting that section does not of necessity apply to situations governed by 8 U.S.C. § 1184.
The desire of the Service to engraft on 8 U.S.C. § 1184 a requirement of “satisfacto-riness,” or “continuing viability,” of the marriage is understandable but without statutory authority. We cannot apply a statute that Congress has not enacted.