Court Opinion

ID: 9480593
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:52:20.585845+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:46.819060
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
After seven years of proceedings before the immigration authorities, the Attorney General has decided that Doherty, who has admitted his deportability after illegal entry into the United States, may not reopen the matter and be heard on his claims for asylum as a political refugee and for withholding of deportation. The record supports the Attorney General’s exercise of his discretion in denying further hearing. It also supports his decision that “[i]t is in the [United States’] interest that [Doherty] be sent directly to the United Kingdom,” which he left as a fugitive from justice, and not to the Republic of Ireland. Consequently, I would affirm both orders of the Attorneys General.
On June 10, 1981, Doherty escaped from the Crumlin Road prison in Northern Ireland where he was being held during his trial for the killing of Captain Herbert Westmacott of the British Army on May 2, 1980. Two days after his escape, he was convicted for the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. A fugitive from justice, *1123he entered the United States illegally on or about February 1, 1982 and was arrested in New York City on June 18,1983. At about the same time that a deportation warrant was filed against him, Doherty filed for asylum and withholding of deportation on June 28, 1983.
Having been thwarted in returning Do-herty to the United Kingdom under the extradition treaty then in force, by a ruling of the District Court for the Southern District in December 1984 which under longstanding caselaw was not appealable, the Government sought to expel him as an illegal immigrant and return him to the country from which he had fled.
In a strategic maneuver undertaken with advice of counsel, Doherty conceded de-portability on September 5, 1986 and withdrew his applications for asylum and withholding of deportation. On September 12, 1986, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which executes the immigration laws under the supervision of the Attorney General, requested the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) to deport Doherty to the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, the IJ decided that Doherty should be returned to the Republic of Ireland. After the Board of Immigration Appeals (“Board” or “BIA”) upheld the IJ, Attorney General Meese on June 9, 1988 decided in the best interests of the foreign relations of the United States that Doherty should be returned to the United Kingdom rather than to the Republic of Ireland.
Meanwhile, on December 3, 1987, Doherty moved for leave to reopen the deportation proceedings to reapply for asylum and withholding of deportation in view of what he claimed were changed circumstances. The Board, on November 14, 1988, voting 3-2, granted leave to reopen.
Attorney General Thornburgh on June 30, 1989 overruled the Board and denied leave to reopen. In a carefully reasoned opinion, he held that even if Doherty were permitted to reopen the deportation proceedings, he would be denied asylum — a form of discretionary relief — because his violent acts rendered him ineligible for a favorable exercise of discretion. This opinion demonstrates conclusively that Doherty has shown no new facts which are relevant to the Attorney General’s decision to return him to the United Kingdom.
Doherty has enjoyed in full measure any right he has to a full and extended consideration of his claims. The Attorney General is the final authority on the return of illegal aliens. We should sustain his authority especially in matters which so intimately affect the foreign relations of the United States. The Attorney General’s opinion shows that, whatever else may be done, the inevitable result is that Doherty will be sent back to the United Kingdom.
I
In Doherty v. Meese, 808 F.2d 938, 943-44 (2d Cir.1986),1 we held that, in immigration cases with weighty foreign policy implications, a decision of the Attorney General is “essentially unreviewable” when Congress has committed that decision to the unguided discretion of the Attorney General. Judicial inquiry in such cases is effectively limited to claims of unconstitutionality, fraud, or lack of jurisdiction, id. at 944 (citations omitted), and, this case presents no colorable claims of that nature. Thus, we held then that the decision whether to reject an alien’s designation of the country to which he will be deported (“designation”) under § 243(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“Act” or “INA”) is “essentially unreviewable” because the statute provides that such a decision is simply in the Attorney General’s “discretion.” 8 U.S.C. § 1253(a).
*1124We now review a decision denying a motion to reopen deportation proceedings. Like the matter of designation, motions to reopen are committed to the discretion of the Attorney General. In numerous cases, the Supreme Court has held that such motions are discretionary in the Board. See, e.g., INS v. Rios-Pineda, 471 U.S. 444, 449, 105 S.Ct. 2098, 2101-02, 85 L.Ed.2d 452 (1985); INS v. Phinpathya, 464 U.S. 183, 188 n. 6, 104 S.Ct. 584, 588 n. 6, 78 L.Ed.2d 401 (1984); INS v. Jong Ha Wang, 450 U.S. 139, 144 n. 5, 101 S.Ct. 1027, 1031 n. 5, 67 L.Ed.2d 123 (1981). Because the Board “is not a statutory body, but is wholly a creature of regulations issued by the Attorney General,” Greene v. INS, 313 F.2d 148, 151 (9th Cir.) (citing 8 C.F.R. §§ 3.1 et seq.), cert. denied, 374 U.S. 828, 83 S.Ct. 1869, 10 L.Ed.2d 1051 (1963), the only source of the Board’s discretion is the Attorney General. Furthermore, the Attorney General always has authority to review a decision of the Board, see 8 C.F.R. § 3.1(h)(1). Thus, because the Board has discretion in this area, the Attorney General a fortiori has discretion at least as broad.2
Since we affirm Attorney General Meese’s discretionary rejection of Doherty’s designation because it is “essentially unreviewable,” and since Attorney General Thornburgh’s discretionary decision not to reopen proceedings is likewise “essentially unreviewable,” we should also affirm the Thornburgh order. We had no basis for reversing the Attorney General in Doherty v. Meese, and we have none now.
Motions to reopen “are disfavored in deportation proceedings” for the same reason that petitions for rehearing and motions for new trials based on newly discovered evidence are disfavored: “There is a strong public interest in bringing litigation to a close as promptly as is consistent with the interest in giving the adversaries a fair opportunity to develop and present their respective cases.” INS v. Abudu, 485 U.S. 94, 107, 108 S.Ct. 904, 913, 99 L.Ed.2d 90 (1988). Doherty has had seven years to develop and present his case yet he has failed to convince the Attorney General. When the Attorney General decides, after a careful review of the voluminous record, that a drawn-out case such as this no longer merits attention, we are in no position to contradict that judgment.
There is a special reason for judicial restraint in cases such as this. As compared with officials of other administrative agencies, “INS officials must exercise especially sensitive political functions that implicate questions of foreign relations, and therefore the reasons for giving deference to agency decisions on petitions for reopening or reconsideration in other administrative contexts apply with even greater force in the INS context.” Abudu, 485 U.S. at 110, 108 S.Ct. at 914-15 (footnote omitted). There can be no doubt that political judgments are at the heart of the decision not to reopen this case. As we stated in Do-herty v. Meese, the Doherty matter “affects not only the relations of the United States with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, but also the complicated multilateral negotiations concerning efforts to halt international terrorism.” 808 F.2d at 943. To prolong these proceedings after the Attorney General has drawn the line is to upset a policy decision that affects international relations and that accordingly should be “ ‘largely immune from judicial inquiry or interference,’ ” id. (quoting Harisiades v. Shaughnessy, 342 U.S. 580, 589, 72 S.Ct. 512, 519, 96 L.Ed. 586 (1952)).
The denial of Doherty’s motion to reopen was made not by an inferior INS official but by the Attorney General himself in a thorough and reasoned signed opinion. The Attorney General, as a member of the Cabinet who reports to the President and is conversant with the views of the administration, expresses the views of the Government. When the Attorney General makes *1125a judgment on an essentially political question, we usurp the executive’s authority when we review that decision for infirmities less grave than the most serious violations of law. See Doherty v. Meese, 808 F.2d at 944.
The majority states that the Board has “developed a well of informed experience” concerning motions to reopen and that “it is precisely the knowledge gained through such experience that gives us reason to defer to the Board’s decisions in most immigration matters.” Thus, the majority implicitly concludes, the Board’s decision here deserves more deference than Attorney General Thornburgh’s decision disapproving it. I cannot accept this conclusion. Matters which concern asylum and deportation are primarily matters of foreign policy and political judgment. The Attorney General has the ultimate authority in such matters, not the members of an inferior Board. Congress has placed the Attorney General at the top of the hierarchy of immigration officials; his word is the last word.
INS v. Abudu, 485 U.S. 94, 108 S.Ct. 904, 99 L.Ed.2d 90 (1988), should not be the sole focus of our inquiry because it addresses few of the foregoing concerns. In large part, Abudu simply summarized prior holdings regarding some of the grounds upon which the Board may deny a motion to reopen and held that the Board’s denial of a motion to reopen under 8 C.F.R. § 3.2 or 208.11 should be reviewed under an abuse-of-discretion standard. Since Abudu involved a decision of the Board and not of the Attorney General himself, it provides little guidance for our review of the extraordinary case where, as here, the Attorney General has deemed certain principles and policies — for example, that those who use violence to advance parochial ends are not to benefit from the privileges offered by our immigration law — so important that he has used his rarely exercised authority under 8 C.F.R. § 3.1(h)(1) to articulate and apply them. By dwelling on the reasons set forth in Abudu for denying a motion to reopen, the majority gives insufficient attention to the unusual posture of this case. Moreover, Abudu is not the last word on motions to reopen because the Abudu list of reasons for denying a motion to reopen was clearly not meant to be exhaustive. See 485 U.S. at 104, 108 S.Ct. at 911 (“There are at least three independent grounds on which the BIA may deny a motion to reopen.”) (emphasis added).
II
Even under Abudu, the motion to reopen was properly denied for three reasons.
First, to the extent that the motion to reopen was for the purpose of applying for asylum, it was properly denied under the third Abudu factor, which provides that where a party moves to reopen to apply for discretionary relief, such as asylum,
the BIA may leap ahead, as it were, over the two threshold concerns (prima facie case and new evidence/reasonable explanation), and simply determine that even if they were met, the movant would not be entitled to the discretionary grant of relief.
Abudu, 485 U.S. at 105, 108 S.Ct. at 912.
If the BIA may simply deny the motion because it believes the movant is undeserving of asylum, then surely the Attorney General may do the same. Here, Attorney General Thornburgh did just that with the following statement:
In my discretion, I would not grant [Do-herty] asylum. [I]t is the “policy of the United States that those who commit acts of violence against a democratic state should receive prompt and lawful punishment.” Matter of Doherty, Mem. Att’y Gen. at 7 (June 9, 1988). Deporting [Doherty] to the United Kingdom would unquestionably advance this important policy. See id. at 6-7. [In addition,] the United States Government, through the State Department, has specifically determined that it is in the foreign policy interests of this country that respondent be deported to the United Kingdom. Id. at 7-8.
In so ruling, the Attorney General did not abuse his discretion.
The majority, disregarding the delicacy of this determination, notes that Attorney General Thornburgh, in ruling that Doher*1126ty ultimately would not be granted asylum, referred to the nation’s political and foreign policy interests. According to the majority, such a reference was an abuse of discretion because the legislative history of the asylum provision supposedly indicates that Congress intended such interests to be ignored in the determination of whether to grant an asylum application. My reading of the legislative history, even accepting the majority’s historiography, leads me to a different conclusion. Even if the asylum provision does define eligibility for asylum, it explicitly commits the asylum determination to the discretion of the Attorney General. Congress specifically rejected making asylum mandatory upon the appropriate showing. If Congress had wanted to limit the Attorney General’s discretion to deny an asylum application, it knew how to do so. That the statute places no restrictions on his discretion tells us that Congress intended that there be none.
Moreover, a comparison of the two provisions indicates that the Attorney General has no less discretion in deciding asylum cases then he does in deciding where to deport an alien. The deportation provision states:
“The deportation of an alien ... shall be directed by the Attorney General to a country promptly designated by the alien ... unless the Attorney General, in his discretion, concludes that deportation to such country would be prejudicial to the interests of the United States.”
INA § 243(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1253(a) (emphasis added). Similarly, the asylum provision states:
[T]he alien may be granted asylum in the discretion of the Attorney General if the Attorney General determines that such alien is a refugee within the meaning of section 1101(a)(42)(A) of this title.
INA § 208(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a) (emphasis added). To judge from these two subsections, the Attorney General has wider latitude to reject an asylum application than a deportation designation because the asylum applicant may not even be considered for discretionary approval unless the Attorney General also determines that the applicant is a refugee. Thus, as I have shown with respect to the Attorney General’s discretion to deny a motion to reopen, if a discretionary decision under the deportation provision is essentially unreviewable, then a discretionary decision under the asylum provision should also be essentially unre-viewable.
There is no basis in the statute for concluding that, once an alien is determined to be eligible for asylum, the Attorney General’s discretion to deny asylum is limited to a narrow class of cases involving administrative irregularity.3 While Congress has established rules for determining who is eligible for asylum, it has created no rules for determining who among those eligible for asylum should receive that relief. The statute, in providing that “[t]he alien may be granted asylum in the discretion of the Attorney General,” INA § 208(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a) (emphasis added), uses the broadest language possible to describe the authority of the Attorney General to make the ultimate asylum decision. Moreover, if, as the majority states, those eligible for asylum “should ordinarily be granted asylum,” then the statute’s provision that the ultimate asylum decision is “in the discretion of the Attorney General” would be surplusage; such a view would render meaningless this most significant portion of the statute when a much more plausible interpretation — that Congress declined to *1127guide the Attorney General’s decision as to who among those eligible should receive asylum — is available.
Second, again to the extent that the motion to reopen was for the purpose of applying for asylum, it was properly denied under that part of the second Abudu factor which permits denial of a motion to reopen “in an asylum application case [if] the mov-ant has not reasonably explained his failure to apply for asylum initially.” 485 U.S. at 105, 108 S.Ct. at 911. In deciding, properly, that Doherty waived his claim to asylum as a result of a tactical choice, Attorney General Thornburgh effectively ruled that Doherty failed this prong of Abudu.4 Do-herty’s decision to withdraw his asylum application, which is the equivalent of a “failure to apply for asylum initially,” was made with advice of counsel and with full knowledge that the Government was going to contest his designation and that the statute authorized Attorney General Meese to reject it.5 It was a calculated risk on his part to admit deportability and not to pursue relief: his strategy was to be deported before the effective date of the Supplementary Treaty. Doherty asked to be deported knowing full well that such a procedural ploy might work to his disadvantage. Now that it has in fact worked to his disadvantage, he asks this court for a second bite at the apple for the obvious reason that he does not like the way his first plan worked out. Surely his miscalculation is not sufficient explanation of his failure to apply for asylum initially.
Attorney General Thornburgh points out that Doherty, having conceded deportability and failed to pursue an application for asylum or withholding, is in a position analogous to that of a defendant seeking to withdraw a guilty plea. One in such a position bears an extremely heavy burden of proof on a narrow issue: “[W]hen the judgment of conviction upon a guilty plea has become final and the offender seeks to reopen the proceeding, the inquiry is ordinarily confined to whether the underlying plea was both counseled and voluntary.” United States v. Broce, 488 U.S. 563, 109 S.Ct. 757, 762, 102 L.Ed.2d 927 (1989). Do-herty makes no claim that his decision not to pursue asylum was either uncounseled or involuntary. Moreover, “[a] defendant is not entitled to withdraw his plea [of guilt] merely because he discovers long after the plea has been accepted that his calculus misapprehended the quality of the State’s case or the likely penalties attached to alternative courses of action.” Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 757, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1473, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970). That Doherty misapprehended the relative merits of the various options open to him, which is what his claims boil down to, is simply a statement that he failed to apply for asylum and not a reasonable explanation for that failure.
The majority miscasts Attorney General Thornburgh's waiver argument as a claim that a party to a deportation proceeding assumes the risk “that subsequent developments might change the basis for the Board’s decision.” Attorney General Thornburgh did not make so nebulous and sweeping a claim. He spoke only of those subsequent developments — Attorney General Meese’s rejection of his designation and his potential extradition from the Republic of Ireland to the United Kingdom— which Doherty knew or should have known had a strong likelihood of coming to pass and for which Doherty’s mere distaste is insufficient reason to excuse his unsuccessful stratagem.
Third, the entire motion to reopen was properly denied under that part of the sec*1128ond Abudu factor which permits denial of a motion to reopen if “the movant has not introduced previously unavailable, material evidence.” 485 U.S. at 104, 108 S.Ct. at 911 (citation omitted). The record fully supports Attorney General Thornburgh’s decision that Doherty did not offer any previously unavailable, material evidence. The decision of Attorney General Meese to reject Doherty’s designation and to deport Doherty to the United Kingdom was simply not evidence. It was a legal consequence. Doherty’s argument here is akin to that of one who moves to withdraw a guilty plea because the sentence, or even prison itself, has proved harsher than expected. Such withdrawal is impermissible. See United States v. Prince, 533 F.2d 205 (5th Cir.1976) (defendant may not withdraw plea of nolo contendere, made after consulting counsel, when sentence proved harsher than expected). As Attorney General Thornburgh stated, “The ultimate decision in an administrative process cannot itself constitute ‘new’ evidence to justify reopening. If an adverse decision were sufficient, there could never be finality in the process.”
Nor did implementation of the Extradition Act on December 1, 1987 constitute new evidence. Attorney General Thorn-burgh found that Doherty was extraditable from the Republic of Ireland to the United Kingdom even prior to December 1, 1987 on the basis of long-standing provisions of Irish law, and I see no reason to disturb this finding. The Extradition Act is simply cumulative evidence — if it is evidence at all — of his extraditability to the United Kingdom. As Attorney General Thorn-burgh noted, one of Doherty’s arguments in support of the immigration judge’s decision to deport him to the Republic of Ireland was that Irish law prior to the Extradition Act also provided for his extradition to the United Kingdom. Thus, the fact of his extraditability from the Republic of Ireland to the United Kingdom did not newly arise on December 1, 1987 but rather existed long before that date.
I also agree with the Attorney General that the additional documents, books, and affidavit in support of his motion to reopen were either cumulative, previously available, or immaterial. As the Attorney General stated, “None of the evidence supports the existence of a threat of persecution of which respondent was unaware or a material change in the character of a threat previously recognized.”
Ill
To the extent the motion to reopen was for the purpose of applying for withholding of deportation, it was properly denied for two additional reasons.
In ruling that Doherty waived any claim he may have had to asylum, Attorney General Thornburgh also ruled that Doherty waived whatever claim he had to withholding of deportation. For the reasons stated above in Part II, this was a sufficient independent ground for his denial of the motion to reopen.
The motion to reopen was also properly denied under INA § 243(h)(2)(C), 8 U.S.C. § 1253(h)(2)(C), which provides that an alien “shall not” be granted withholding
if the Attorney General determines that—
(C) there are serious reasons for considering that the alien has committed a serious nonpolitical crime outside the United States prior to the arrival of the alien in the United States....
As is evident from the face of the statute, the majority’s statement that “withholding of deportation is mandatory upon a showing of statutory eligibility” tells only half the story. In fact, it is mandatory for the Attorney General to deny withholding if he determines that the alien fails any of the tests in § 243(h)(2)(A)-(D). Although the Attorney General’s determination is not discretionary, § 243(h)(2) states numerous reasons to deny withholding, and subsection (C) has a low burden of proof, see McMullen v. INS, 788 F.2d 591, 599 (9th Cir.1986) (only “probable cause” required). Thus, I believe that as long as the record is adequate and the Attorney General makes reasoned findings based on that record, his *1129determination that the alien has failed any of the tests of § 243(h)(2), particularly that in subsection (C), should be a sufficient ground to deny a motion to reopen for the purpose of applying for withholding. Since the record is replete with Doherty’s admissions of actions constituting violations of § 243(h)(2), and since the Attorney General’s determination that Doherty failed the test in subsection (C) is a model of a reasoned decision based on the record, I think he properly denied the motion to reopen to the extent it was for the purpose of applying for withholding.6
Doherty admitted to all of the following at his 1984 extradition hearing. He was an officer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (“PIRA”) and committed acts dangerous to others on behalf of the PIRA,7 which the United States Department of State has classified as a terrorist organization, see n. 6, supra. For example, in 1973, Doherty was convicted of and imprisoned for a firearms violation. In 1974, he was convicted of and imprisoned for smuggling 80 pounds of explosives in a car hijacked by the PIRA. In 1980, in a van hijacked by the PIRA, he drove several of his PIRA confederates to a private Belfast house, while the van driver was held captive; took over the house and held hostage the family inside; and engaged in a firefight that resulted in the death of Captain Westmacott of the British Army.
As noted in the opinion dissenting from the Board’s decision, “it is fortuitous that the civilian hostages [taken by Doherty and his associates] were uninjured in view of the fact that they were exposed to a gun battle.” Matter of Doherty, No. A26 185 231, slip op. at 4 (BIA Nov. 14, 1988) (Morris, B.M., dissenting). Even if violence against a democratic government or against such a government’s military personnel were a “political” rather than a “criminal” matter, which it surely is not, Doherty’s participation in attacks against civilians has given Attorney General Thorn-burgh a substantial basis for concluding that Doherty has committed serious nonpolitical crimes outside the United States pri- or to his illegal entry.8
Given Doherty’s admission of PIRA membership, of involvement in the West-macott killing, and of offenses against in*1130nocent civilians; the low standard of proof under subsection (C); and the statutory-imperative of denying withholding to one considered undesirable under § 243(h)(2), I believe that Attorney General Thorn-burgh’s decision is unassailable. I fail to see what proper purpose will be served by granting a hearing on Doherty’s withholding claim.
The majority, citing Abudu, states that “the attorney general’s power to deny a motion to reopen based on factors other than the movant’s failure to establish a prima facie case or the lack of new evidence is limited to ‘cases in which the ultimate grant of relief is discretionary * * * not withholding of deportation’. [485 U.S. at 105, 108 S.Ct. at 912]” (emphasis added by majority). Thus, the majority implies, Attorney General Thornburgh erred by resolving this question as if withholding were a discretionary matter. I disagree.
Attorney General Thornburgh resolved Doherty’s entitlement to withholding not as a discretionary matter but rather as a legal question governed by the rules set out in § 243(h)(2). Even if Abudu were the sole guide for our review, his decision regarding withholding would not be reviewable under the third Abudu factor. The real issue is the adequacy of the record and the rationality of the Attorney General’s conclusion based on the record. Since the record and reasoning here were more than adequate, a further hearing would be a waste of time and would serve only to delay the final resolution of proceedings which have lasted seven years since Doherty’s arrest in 1983.
IV
For the foregoing reasons, I would dismiss both petitions for review and affirm the orders of the Attorneys General.

. There, Doherty petitioned for habeas corpus relief from his detention pending the Government’s administrative appeal of the IJ’s decision granting Doherty’s request to be deported to the Republic of Ireland rather than to the United Kingdom. Doherty contended that the Government’s appeal was frivolous and was intended solely to keep him in the United States until after the effective date of the Supplementary Extradition Treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom. See Doherty v. Meese, 808 F.2d at 940. We affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas relief because the Government clearly had a reasonable basis for pursuing the administrative appeal.

. The Attorney General’s discretionary authority to decide or even to countenance motions to reopen derives from those portions of the Act providing that ”[t]he Attorney General shall be charged with the administration and enforcement of" the Act and "shall ... perform such other acts as he deems necessary for carrying out his authority under the provisions of” the Act. INA § 103(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1103(a). This language places no constraints on the decision-making authority that it confers upon the Attorney General.

. Doherty even fits into this category. The majority concedes that an asylum application may be denied when the applicant “intentionally circumvents the admissions process” in his home country to secure more speedy entry into the United States. This is essentially to say that an applicant’s manipulation of the process for personal benefit is grounds for rejection. Here, Attorney General Thornburgh implicitly decided that by withdrawing his application for asylum, conceding deportability, and then renewing the application when his plan backfired, Doherty was seeking to manipulate the process in a way that made him undeserving of asyium. Certainly the Attorney General may decide, first, that Doherty's rejection of asylum in a tactical maneuver and his subsequent renewal of his asylum application represent an attempt to have it both ways and, second, that the Government need not grant asylum to one who plays fast and loose with so great a privilege as asylum in the United States.

. Although Attorney General Thornburgh termed this waiver argument an "independent” ground for decision, it is the equivalent of a challenge, under the second Abudu factor, to the reasonableness of Doherty's explanation of his failure to apply for asylum initially.

. He must be charged with knowing that there was a substantial risk Attorney General Meese would reject his designation. The same sentence of the INA that gives the alien the right to designate gives the Attorney General the right to reject the designation. In addition, the Government’s position stated in open court on September 12, 1986, when Doherty conceded deporta-bility and designated the Republic of Ireland, and maintained ever since is that it would contest Doherty’s designation.

.Although Attorney General Thornburgh found that Doherty failed the test in subsection (A) as well, I focus on his decision under (C), as the facts relevant to that subsection are particularly compelling. However, I find his conclusion under (A) perfectly acceptable as well. Subsection (A) prohibits the Attorney General from granting withholding to any alien he determines to have "ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of ... political opinion.” § 243(h)(2)(A), 8 U.S.C. § 1253(h)(2)(A) (emphasis added). Doherty does not dispute that the official position of the United States is that the PIRA is a terrorist organization, see U.S. Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1988, 33-34, 74-75 (1989); McMullen, 788 F.2d at 597, and the Board itself has found that the PIRA aims its violence at, among others, civilians who oppose the PIRA’s objectives and methods. See id. at 600 (“The BIA found that the PIRA killed or attempted to kill those who publicly opposed their activities,” and an active role in the PIRA "amounts to the assistance of this persecution on account of political opinion”) (Goodwin, J., specially concurring). Because Doherty has admitted an active role in the PIRA and has embraced the PIRA without reservation, the Attorney General properly concluded that Doherty “otherwise participated” in persecution on account of political opinion.

. The PIRA, a radical offshoot of the IRA, "formed in protest to the perceived inefficacy of the IRA,” McMullen v. INS, 658 F.2d 1312, 1315 (9th Cir.1981), which itself used violence to achieve its ends, id. Apparently, the founding members of the PIRA believed that the IRA was not violent enough.

. The decision denying Doherty’s extradition on the ground that his murder of Captain Westma-cott was a “political” offense, Matter of Doherty by Gov. of United Kingdom, 599 F.Supp. 270 (S.D.N.Y.1984), has no precedential value either for the Attorney General or for us. Offenses considered "political" for the purposes of extradition treaties may be considered “nonpolitical” for the purposes of the INA in general and of § 243(h)(2)(C), 8 U.S.C. § 1253(h)(2)(C), in particular. See McMullen v. INS, 788 F.2d at 596. In addition, "extradition determinations have no res judicata effect in subsequent judicial proceedings.” Id. at 597 (citations omitted). Finally, that decision was not appealable under longstanding caselaw, see United States v. Doherty, 786 F.2d 491, 495 (2d Cir.1986); Matter of Mackin, 668 F.2d 122, 125-30 (2d Cir.1981), and we have therefore had no occasion for direct review of it on the merits.