Court Opinion

ID: 9494127
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:29:52.999556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:13.981081
License: Public Domain

FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in the proposed opinion, with the exception of part B. With respect to that part, I agree that the majority’s construction of CCA § 104 is very plausible; indeed, it is rather persuasive to me.
However, the language of the CCA is not so clear that it will only bear the majority’s construction. As I see it, the language could be construed to allow coverage of individuals who had reached the age of 18 years before the CCA’s effective date. That being so, I think the wiser course would be to allow the BIA to render an opinion on the issue before we do so.
In my view, the fact that we review legal questions de novo does not detract from the fact that we owe Chevron1 deference to the BIA. If we ever doubted that, the Supreme Court surely disabused us of the notion in 1999. See INS v. Aguirre-Aguirre, 526 U.S. 415, 424-25, 119 S.Ct. 1439, 1445-46, 143 L.Ed.2d 590 (1999). I am not satisfied that we may eschew that deference simply because the issues at hand touch on the question of nationality. *761Certainly, we have not been cited to any cases to that effect.2
In fíne, without denigrating the answer given by the majority, I would, instead, vacate the BIA’s decision and remand the case for reconsideration in light of the CCA.

. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984).

. I do not find it significant that in one instance we did not give the Secretary of State any particular deference as to people within the United States. See Scales v. INS, 232 F.3d 1159, 1165-66 (9th Cir.2000). In that case, the statute conferred no authority regarding the subject upon the Secretary, and, in any event, the Secretary had not issued regulations to which we did owe deference. Id. We did not question the Secretary’s authority in the proper arena.