Court Opinion

ID: 9485886
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:32:59.252064+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:25.396973
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
Even as combatting crime has become a major federal legislative initiative of yet another presidential administration, we have become increasingly aware of the unintended casualties of our decade-long “War on Drugs.” Of late, several members of the ordinarily reticent judiciary have spoken out about some of these previously-hidden costs: the loss of sentencing discretion and lengthy incarceration of first-time offenders, for example. Judges have also noted that major drug offenders can and do obtain more lenient treatment than fringe participants because only the major players can turn in their subordinates and thus provide the substantial governmental assistance that is a prerequisite to sentencing below the statutory minimum. The far less culpable bit players ordinarily have no knowledge of who their ringleaders are. In the catalog of draconian acts perpetrated in furtherance of federal efforts to eliminate illicit drug trafficking, deporting lawful resident aliens solely because of a single conviction of drug use must certainly rank high. Deportation is a drastic action indeed when applied to people here lawfully, with long-term residency and extensive family ties in this country, often to parents or children. Nonetheless, the legislature’s words compel the result we reach in our opinion. I write this special concurrence only to emphasize two points.
The first is that this is one of those rare occasions when our statutory interpretation rests almost entirely upon the legal fiction that Congress’ language embodies its intent. See Connecticut Nat’l Bank v. Germain, — U.S. —, 112 S.Ct. 1146, 1149, 117 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992) (plain language rule, like all canons of construction, is a presumptive rule of thumb for use in determining statutory meaning). Under the established approach to statutory interpretation, we rely on plain language in the first instance, but always look to legislative history in order to determine whether there is a clear indication of contrary intent. See INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 432 n. 12, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 1213 n. 12, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987). In the usual case, of course, the history provides further support for the plain-language inter*364pretation. That is not surprising and explains in part why the presumption in favor of interpretations conforming to ordinary meaning makes sense. However, on some occasions, there is nothing in the congressional discussions to support the plain-language interpretation. This is such a case.
Neither party has identified anything in the legislative history that demonstrates that any legislator, much less a majority of them, thought about whether a lawful resident alien convicted of use or being under the influence should be deportable as one convicted of violating “any law ... relating to a controlled substance.” The previous version of the statute had been consistently interpreted not to reach “use” convictions, and there is no indication, aside from its text, that the 1986 amendment was designed to overturn this longstanding interpretive precedent. Indeed, the INS agrees that the preeminent concerns in amending the section were apparently to simplify the statute and to broaden it to reach unspecified “designer drugs,” but not to expand the provision to reach under-the-influence convictions. Thus, just as it lacks the clarity necessary to enforce the petitioner’s argued' departure from the ordinary meaning of the plain language, the legislative history offers no support for the government’s position.
Ordinarily, where the legislative history fails to further support the plain-language interpretation of a statute, that interpretation is at least more consistent than the alternative with the apparent purpose of the legislation. Here, I am unsure that deporting lawfully resident aliens convicted of a single use of a controlled substance is consonant with the purpose of the deportation provision — whether that purpose be to discourage drug trafficking or to punish serious law violators. 1 If the provision’s purpose is to deter drug trafficking, deporting a few occasional users seems unlikely to so impact the demand for illicit drugs as to discourage traffickers. If the purpose is to punish serious lawbreakers, deporting one-time convicted drug users is at best' a most dubious way of going about it.
That raises my second point — that the result dictated by the legislature’s plain language is draconian. Federal efforts to decrease demand for illicit drugs have generally been non-punitivé, in part out of recognition of the addictive nature of most controlled substances. Ordinarily, we look to treat drug users rather than to punish them. Although many states, such as California, continue to address drug use through the criminal justice system, the federal government generally has hot chosen that approach. Leaving aside, however, the habitual drug user or drug addict, deportation for a single under-the-influence conviction is obviously an egregious form, of federal punishment for what is normally no more than a misdemean- or offense. In my view, such punishment is self-evidently harsh and excessive, if not vindictive. We are concerned here with lawful resident aliens, many of whom have been in the United States for a number of years and have close family ties to this country.1 Some of these family ties, including those of parent and child, may be severed irrevocably simply because a person unwisely took drugs on one or even several occasions. I find this punitive approach to illicit drug use, visited upon lawful resident aliens, to be most unsettling and ungenerous. It .is hardly consistent wdth the vision that we Americans have of our nation’s policies.
Nonetheless, under the rules of statutory interpretation, in order to disregard the plain meaning of the statute, I would be required to conclude that the result is absurd. See United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 580, 101 S.Ct. 2524, 2527, 69 L.Ed.2d 246 (1981). In a time when we continue to escalate the ever more sweeping “War on Drugs” and when anti-immigration sentiments are dramatically on the rise, it would, unfortunately, *365hardly be absurd to conclude that the Congress intended to treat lawful resident aliens who succumb to even occasional drug use in so harsh a manner. I can only hope that someday Congress, whether or not it initially intended this result, will recognize how unfair its eontrolled-substance deportation provision can be, and will amend the statute.2

. As noted in the opinion, Flores, although only legally admitted in 1990, had resided here for many years prior to these proceedings. Moreover, the provision we interpret applies to all lawful resident aliens, no matter how long their residency. On the same day we heard argument in this case, we submitted three cases, raising the same issue, that involve aliens legally resident in the United States twenty years and more. These aliens, unlike Flores, are eligible for waiver under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c), but waiver lies solely within the discretion of the Board of Immigration Appeals.

. I recognize that aliens lawfully resident for at least seven years are eligible for waiver of deportation under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c). However,.that is of little assistance to individuals like the petitioner. Moreover, the INS and the BIA have always followed a highly restrictive policy in granting discretionary waivers, particularly where the ground for deportation relates to controlled substances.