Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Involved in this case is the single question of whether the Federal Courts of Appeals have the initial, exclusive jurisdiction, under § 106 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to review discretionary determinations of the Attorney General, relating to the suspension of deportation, under § 244 (a)(5) of the Act.
Petitioner, a 47-year-old alien and a native and citizen of Italy, last entered the United States in late 1950,
The issue involved here is solely one relating to procedures incident to deportation proceedings. In the present posture of the case, we need not be concerned with the ultimate merits as to petitioner’s deportability,
The statutory provision in question, § 106 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, provides that the procedure for judicial review by the Courts of Appeals of certain orders
Prior to 1940, the Attorney General had no discretion with respect to the deportation of an alien who came within the defined category of deportable persons. The expulsion of such a person was mandatory; his only avenue of relief in a hardship case was by a private bill in Congress. Therefore, any differentiation that might have been made prior to 1940 between a determination that an alien was deportable and the order directing his deportation would have been merely formalistic and essentially meaningless. In fact, the determination of deportability necessarily resulted in, and was invariably accompanied by, a deportation order. Since 1940, however, when the Attorney General was given the power to grant discretionary relief under various circumstances in deportation cases,
It must be concluded that Congress knew of this familiar administrative practice and had it in mind when it enacted § 106 (a). These usages and procedures, which were actually followed when the provision was enacted, must reasonably be regarded as composing the context of the legislation. A colloquy between Congressmen Walter, Lindsay and Moore, all knowledgeable in deportation matters,
It can hardly be contended that the meaning of the phrase “final orders of deportation” is so clear and unambiguous as to be susceptible of only a narrow interpretation confined solely to determinations of deportability.' If anything, the literal language would appear to include a denial of discretionary relief, made during the same proceedings in which deportability is determined, which effectively terminates the proceeding. In arriving at the intended construction of this language, we must therefore inevitably turn to the purpose of Congress in enacting this legislation. The fundamental purpose behind § 106 (a) was to abbreviate the process of judicial review of deportation orders in order to frustrate certain practices which had come to the attention of Congress, whereby persons subject to deportation were forestalling departure by dilatory tactics in the courts. A House Judiciary Committee report succinctly stated the problem
“Other aliens, mostly subversives, gangsters, immoral [persons], or narcotic peddlers, manage to protract their stay here indefinitely only because their ill-gotten gains permit them to procure the services of astute attorneys who know how to skillfully exploit the judicial process. Without any reflection upon the courts, it is undoubtedly now the fact that such tactics can prevent enforcement of the deportation provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act by repetitive appeals to the busy and overworked courts with frivolous claims of impropriety in the deportation proceedings.”
The key feature of the congressional plan directed at this problem was the elimination of the previous initial step in obtaining judicial review — a suit in a District Court— and the resulting restriction of review to Courts of Appeals, subject only to the certiorari jurisdiction of this Court. As stated in the same Committee report, the plain objective of § 106 (a) was “to create a single, separate, statutory form of judicial review of administrative orders for the deportation ... of aliens . . . .”
Although the Court of Appeals agrees that the basic purpose of § 106 (a) was to expedite the deportation of undesirable aliens by preventing successive dilatory appeals to various federal courts, it fails to apply that interpretation to the question presented in this case. Its finding that the bifurcated procedure resulting from an alien’s seeking review of a denial of discretionary relief in a District Court and review of an adjudication of deportability, as is admittedly required by § 106 (a), in a Court of Appeals would expedite the deportation is without foundation. It is premised on its assumption that, in actions to review denial of discretionary relief, District Courts rarely grant restraining orders. Reliance upon such an assumption, we feel, is unjustified.
In substance, we feel that the Court of Appeals was wrong in limiting the phrase “final orders of deportation”
Paragraph (4) of the subsidiary exceptions to § 106 (a) provides for review solely upon the administrative record and indicates that the findings of fact below are conclusive “if supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole.” However, this does not necessarily mean that Congress intended review in the Courts of Appeals to be restricted to adjudications of deportability. Admittedly, the standard of review applicable to denials of discretionary relief cannot be the same as that for adjudications of deportability, since judicial review of the former is concededly limited to determinations of whether there has been any abuse of administrative discretion. While paragraph (4) clearly applies only to review of adjudications of deportability, and possibly to review of administrative findings of eligibility for discretionary relief,
Also, it seems rather clear that all determinations made during and incident to the administrative proceeding conducted by a special inquiry officer, and reviewable together by the Board of Immigration Appeals, such as orders denying voluntary departure pursuant to § 244 (e) and orders denying the withholding of deportation under § 243 (h), are likewise included within the ambit of the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeals under § 106 (a). We see nothing anomalous about the fact that a change in the administrative regulations may effectively broaden or narrow the scope of review available in the
We need not pass at this time on whether § 106 (a) extends the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeals to include review of orders refusing to reopen deportation proceedings.
It is so ordered.
Notes
The granting of voluntary departure relief does not result in the alien’s not being subject to an outstanding final order of deportation. In this ease, the order granting voluntary departure was combined with a contingent deportation order, which directed that petitioner be deported if he failed to depart within the prescribed time and was to become effective automatically if petitioner did not depart the country by the date fixed by the District Director.
Immigration and Nationality Act, § 106, as added by § 5 (a) of Public Law 87-301, approved September 26, 1961, 75 Stat. 651, 8 U. S. C. (Supp. IV, 1962) § 1105a.
Compare Fong v. Immigration and Naturalization Service,
On October 24, 1962, subsequent to the decision below and while the case was pending before this Court on petition for certiorari, Congress enacted Public-Law 87-885, § 4, 76 Stat. 1247, effective the same date. This enactment provides, in relevant part, for the amendment of § 244 of the Act, the source of the Attorney General’s power to suspend the deportation of eligible classes of aliens, by the addition of a new subsection, which states: “(f) No provision of this section shall be applicable to an alien who (1) entered the United States as a crewman ....”. Although petitioner concededly entered the United States as a crewman, and the Government has indicated that, when the merits of this case are reached, it will argue that petitioner is now absolutely ineligible for the relief sought, because of the 1962 amendment to § 244, we agree with the parties that the enactment of this amendment did not necessarily have the effect of rendering moot the jurisdictional issue involved in this litigation. The applicability of this provision to one in petitioner’s situation is an arguable matter, and, since it is not undisputed but remains debatable whether the relief sought by petitioner could still be granted, we have determined it not improper to consider and decide the threshold question of the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals.
Hobbs Act, 64 Stat. 1129 (1950), as amended, 5 U. S. C. § 1031-1042, vesting the Courts of Appeals with exclusive jurisdiction to review final orders of certain designated federal agencies.
On the history of the recent congressional enactments relating to deportation, see Comment, 71 Yale L. J. 760 (1962).
Regarding the extent of the Attorney General's discretion in suspension of deportation cases, see, e. g., Jay v. Boyd,
Representative Walter was the chairman of a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee responsible for immigration and nationality matters, author and chief sponsor of the measure under consideration, and a respected congressional leader in the whole area of immigration law. Representative Lindsay was thoroughly familiar with the problems in this area and the role of discretionary determinations denying suspension in the deportation process, as a result of having represented the Government, three years earlier, in Jay v. Boyd,
105 Cong. Rec. 12728.
H. R. Rep. No. 1086, 87th Cong., 1st Sess. 22-23 (1961).
In further elucidating the purpose of the proposed legislation on the floor of the House, Representative Walter, in reference to one of the predecessor bills in 1968, stated: “Most important, by eliminating review in the district courts, the bill would obviate one of the primary causes of delay in the final determination of all questions which may arise in a deportation proceeding.” 104 Cong. Rec. 17173.
According to the General Counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Service’s policy and practice is to stay deportation, sua sponte, when a petition to obtain judicial review of deter
Deportability is conceded in about 80% of the cases. See Gordon and Rosenfield, Immigration Law and Procedure, § 5.7a, at 541 (1962). Even so, the bifurcation problem remains in that type of case which prompted the enactment of § 106 (a), where judicial review of both an adjudication of deportability and a denial of discretionary relief is sought.
Because of the effect of our holding here, it is of course unnecessary to consider the Government’s contention that, where deport-ability is actually adjudicated, a Court of Appeals has “pendent jurisdiction” to review a denial of discretionary relief in the same proceeding.
In the instant case the special inquiry officer not only found that petitioner failed to meet the eligibility requirements for suspension of deportation, since no hardship would result from his deportation, but further indicated that, even had the hardship requirement been met,
When § 106 (a) was enacted, the withholding of deportation under § 243 (h) was a matter determined by an official other than the special inquiry officer conducting the deportation hearing, on a later occasion, under regulations promulgated by the Attorney General, and the designation of the country of deportation was not made until after the issuance of the warrant of deportation. Under revised and currently effective regulations, both the designation of the country of deportation and the decision on any § 243 (h) request for relief which the alien might wish to make are effected in the deportation proceedings and reflected in the final order of deportation. While presumably denials of § 243 (h) relief were not covered by § 106 (a) at the time of its enactment, it does not seem incongruous to assume that such orders, because of the change in administrative regulations making such decisions an integral part of the deportation proceedings conducted by a special inquiry officer, are now within the reach of §106 (a)’s judicial review provisions. Such a result simply means that, while the jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeals is limited now, as when § 106 (a) was enacted, to the review of “all final orders of deportation,” a change in the administrative regulations relating to the processing and determination of applications for § 243 (h) relief had the incidental effect of expanding the decisional content of such orders. Clearly, changes in administrative procedures may affect the scope and content of various types of agency orders and thus the subject matter embraced in a judicial proceeding to review such orders.
Compare, however,
The court below manifested its concern that, if it were to find that it had jurisdiction in this case, the door would then be opened to the obtaining of review of a refusal to reopen a deportation proceeding in the Courts of Appeals.
Compare the provisions of § 106 (c) purporting to restrict the availability of habeas corpus relief in deportation cases. But see the provisions of § 106 (a) (9) with respect to the availability of habeas corpus relief to aliens held in custody pursuant to a deportation order.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring.
Believing that a jurisdictional statute of this kind should be circumspectly construed, cf. Kesler v. Department of Public Safety,
I therefore concur in the judgment.
