Court Opinion

ID: 9496056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:17:09.080996+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:21.041410
License: Public Domain

BYE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I agree the district court and this court have jurisdiction to consider Mr. Jama’s habeas petition. I disagree, however, that 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(2) allows our government to remove Mr. Jama to Somalia before a functioning central government has indicated it will accept him. Because I would affirm the district court’s order granting the writ, I respectfully dissent.
For nearly a half century, the courts have held the United States cannot deport an alien unless the receiving country advises us it is willing to accept the alien. Rogers v. Lu, 262 F.2d 471, 471 (D.C.Cir. 1958); United States ex rel. Lee Ming Hon v. Shaughnessy, 142 F.Supp. 468, 468 (S.D.N.Y.1956).
Forty-four years ago, Judge Learned Hand interpreted the statutory provisions at issue here and concluded there were no circumstances under which the statute allowed the United States to deport an alien unless the receiving country was “willing to accept” him. United States ex rel. Tom *636Man v. Murff, 264 F.2d 926, 928 (2d Cir. 1959) (quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1253(a), the precursor to 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(2)). Judge Hand’s interpretation of the statute subsequently became well-settled. See Chi Sheng Liu v. Holton, 297 F.2d 740, 743-44 (9th Cir.1961); Chan Chuen v. Esperdy, 285 F.2d 353, 354 (2d Cir.1960); Matter of Linnas, 19 I. & N. Dec. 302, 307, 1985 WL 56051 (BIA 1985) (“[A] country selected under any of the three steps [set forth in § 1253(a) ] must indicate it is willing to accept a deported alien into its ‘territory’ ”) (emphasis added); see also Amanullah & Wahidullah v. Cobb, 862 F.2d 362, 365-66 (1st Cir.1988) (interpreting § 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2), a “parallel” provision to § 1231(b)(2) which applies to excludable rather than removable aliens, and holding the statute requires a country to accept an alien prior to deportation).
The long-standing policy and, until recently, practice of the INS have been consistent with Judge Hand’s interpretation. See 8 C.F.R. § 241.4(k)(1)(i) (“[[T]he INS] shall conduct a custody review for an alien ... where the alien’s removal, while proper, cannot be accomplished during the period because no country currently will accept the alien.”); INS Operating Instruction 243.1(c)(1) (“Except for a limited class of aliens deported to contiguous territory, deportation cannot be effected until travel documentation has been obtained” and further providing for travel documents to be obtained from the country willing to accept an alien) (App.103); see also 2 Immigration Law Serv. § 17.433 (“[D]eportation under Step Three is dependent upon the country in question being willing to accept the deportee into its territory.”).
Each time Congress amended the INA or re-enacted the statutory provisions which now appear at § 1231(b)(2) without making any material changes to the precursor statute, it adopted the well-settled construction given the precursor by the courts and the INS. See Bragdon v. Abbott, 524 U.S. 624, 645, 118 S.Ct. 2196, 141 L.Ed:2d 540 (1998) (“When administrative and judicial interpretations have settled the meaning of an existing statutory provision, repetition of the same language in a new statute indicates, as a general matter, the intent to incorporate its administrative and judicial interpretations as well”). The majority cites In re Niesel, 10 I. & N. Dec. 57, 59, 1962 WL 12904 (BIA 1962) for the proposition there was no settled judicial construction of the disputed provisions. I disagree. “Niesel simply held that the government appropriately disregarded a petitioner’s designation and lawfully chose another country without first inquiring whether that country would accept the petitioner. Thus, Matter of Niesel addressed only the issue of an initial inquiry, not final acceptance of the country to which a person would be returned.” Ali v. Ashcroft, 213 F.R.D. 390, 403 (W.D.Wash.2003) (internal citations omitted) (emphasis in original). Even if Niesel had held no final acceptance was required, the Board of Immigration Appeals clearly abandoned that position in Linnas.
We are not to interpret statutory text in a manner which leads to absurd results. Rowley v. Yarnall, 22 F.3d 190, 192 (8th Cir.1994). The majority explains its interpretation of the statute in part by noting “between countries, it is not uncommon behavior to attempt to accomplish a task by asking politely first, and then to act anyway if the request is refused.” Ante at 634. That is easier said than done. A government not willing to accept an alien will simply refuse his admittance into its country. Thousands of deportees from China, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Cuba and other countries continue to be detained in the United States because those countries are unwilling to accept them. See Donald *637M. Kerwin, Throwing Away the Key: Lifers in INS Custody, 75 Interpreter Release 649, 650-52 (1998). Those deportees can attest to the practical difficulty, if not impossibility, of acting anyway when a request is refused.
As a practical matter, then, the task of removing an alien to a country which has not accepted him will only be accomplished and the majority’s construction of the statute will only be implicated when there is no functioning government to refuse the alien’s acceptance, currently the case in Somalia. The absurdity of such a construction lies in the fact we require a functioning central government as an “essential aspect” of a “country” to which an alien can be deported. Linnas, 19 I. & N. Dec. at 307, 1985 WL 56051; see also Ademi v. INS, 31 F.3d 517, 521 (7th Cir. 1994) (recognizing it is impossible to seek acceptance from a country which has ceased to exist); Chan Chuen v. Esperdy, 285 F.2d 353, 354 (2d Cir.1960) (“[A]ny place possessing a government with authority to accept an alien deported from the United States can qualify as a ‘country’ ... to which a deportable alien may be sent”); Rogers v. Cheng Fu Sheng, 280 F.2d 663, 664-65 (D.C.Cir.1960) (suggesting a “country” with the meaning of the statute requires a functioning government with undisputed control over a well-defined geographical area).
“Learned Hand warned that, absent order, liberty becomes license, ultimately leading to the denial of liberty. In a world of unbridled license, the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.” Remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Eighth Circuit Judges Conference (Aug. 7, 2002). I fear if we “act anyway” by deporting Mr. Jama to Somalia, we abuse our great strength at the expense of the weak. With this change in policy, we abandon a stateless person without a passport or traveling documents in a war-torn country victimized by battling warlords, and without a central government. By doing so, I fear we abandon order and risk the doom of liberty.
Because the government’s recent disregard of a well-settled and accepted construction of § 1231(b)(2) does not accord with my sense of liberty or justice, I respectfully dissent.