Court Opinion

ID: 9481481
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:20:10.655736+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:20.491241
License: Public Domain

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.1
I cannot help but wonder how many immigrants arriving through New York harbor now wonder if the outstretched arms of the Statue of Liberty are meaningful or meaningless. I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding and would adopt the holding and rationale of Escobar Ruiz v. I.N.S., 838 F.2d 1020 (9th Cir.1988) (en banc).
The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) is a statutory mandate of significant value in our jurisprudence. There is no doubt in my mind that the EAJA's legislative history does not clearly indicate whether Congress intended this mandate to extend to immigration proceedings. We must therefore look to Congress’ basic purpose in enacting this legislation, which was to provide access to our justice system to those who need it most. I can think of no other group more deserving than the many immigrants to this country. These people often have to appear before the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) without funds or friends to assist them in their legal skirmish with our government.
The application of the EAJA to INS proceedings is an important issue and one would expect there to be diverse opinions, but that does not diminish the strength of my conviction that we should reverse the Board of Immigration Appeals decision. I do not foresee a great financial cost for our government if we allow prevailing parties in deportation proceedings to recover their attorneys’ fees. Absent a definitive proscription of such award in the statute, I see no reason to dash the hopes and the ambitions of the many people who must appear before the INS in order to remain in this country. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

. E. Lazarus, The New Colossus, in America Forever Now (1968) (inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty).