Rosalba Roa GARCIA, Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF the UNITED STATES, Respondent.
No. 07-2164.
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
Argued July 24, 2008. Filed Jan. 14, 2009.
553 F.3d 724
Appellant next argues that the frequently-invoked rule of lenity demands a construction of the statute in his favor. He is mistaken. The rule of lenity “comes into operation at the end of the process of construing what Congress has expressed, and applies only when, after consulting traditional canons of statutory construction, we are left with an ambiguous statute.” Burgess v. United States, — U.S. —, 128 S.Ct. 1572, 1580, 170 L.Ed.2d 478 (2008) (internal quotations omitted). For the reasons explained, Congress’ incorporation of Puerto Rican convictions in
Lastly, appellant argues that “the existence of a Puerto Rican National Olympic Committee distinct from [that of] the United States” counsels against treating Puerto Rico as a domestic entity. Brief for Appellant 15. Without diminishing the pride Puerto Rico rightfully should enjoy in light of its place in the pantheon of international sporting events, we reject as meritless the proposition that classifications made in the context of the organization of such events find application to the construction of federal law.
III.
Puerto Rican convictions are not “foreign” convictions for purposes of
AFFIRMED.
Christopher C. Fuller, Esq., Erica B. Miles, Ari Nazarov, Esq., Paul F. Stone, Esq., United States Department of Justice, Office of Immigration Litigation, Washington, DC, for Respondent.
Before: McKEE, FUENTES, and WEIS, Circuit Judges.
ORDER
Accordingly, at the direction of the Court the opinion and judgment filed on October 28, 2008 are hereby vacated. The Clerk shall docket the revised opinion and judgment. It is noted that the Respondent has filed a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc. Within 10 days from entry of the revised opinion and judgment, the Respondent may file a supplement to the petition for rehearing or inform the Clerk in writing that supplementation is not required and that Respondent shall rely on the petition for rehearing as originally submitted.
Action by the Court on the petition for rehearing is deferred pending a response by the Respondent in accordance with this order.
OPINION
WEIS, Circuit Judge.
In this immigration case, the Department of Homeland Security1 seeks to deport an alien based on misrepresentations
Appellant Rosalba Roa Garcia is a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic. In 1996, when she was almost twenty-three years old, Garcia filed a Form I-485 application for adjustment to permanent resident status, asserting she was an unmarried adult child of Dinora Altagracia Landestoy, a United States citizen. At the time she filed the application, Garcia knew that Landestoy was not her biological or legal mother. In September 1996, immigration authorities approved the application and granted Garcia lawful permanent residence status.
Landestoy had filed multiple prior unsuccessful petitions on Garcia‘s behalf, including one in September 1993 that was approved in January 1994, but then rescinded in August 1995 after an investigation determined that Landestoy was not her mother. The notice of intent to revoke that petition referred to an earlier application that was rescinded in 1988 on the same basis. Landestoy filed another petition in 1995 that was denied in September 1996 because she did not prove that Garcia was her child.
Despite the multiple rejected applications, the DHS did not realize until 2004, when Garcia filed an application for naturalization, that she was ineligible for the adjustment of status she received in 1996. In 2005, the DHS began removal proceedings charging Garcia with being removable under
An immigration judge ordered Garcia removed on the charged grounds, and the BIA affirmed. She has now petitioned this Court for review. Garcia contends that the five-year limitation in
In Bamidele, this Court vacated a final order of deportation where an alien had obtained an adjustment of status through a sham marriage. Id. at 558. Although it discovered that Bamidele‘s marriage was a fraud, the DHS waited five years to begin deportation proceedings. Id. at 559.
We concluded, “the running of the limitation period bars the rescission of Bamidele‘s permanent resident status and, in the absence of the commission of any other offense, thereby bars initiation of deportation proceedings in this case.” Id. at 563. We reasoned further that, “[i]t defies logic to say that facts known to the INS within five years of Bamidele‘s adjustment of status and which would form the basis of a rescission action (had the INS taken timely action) should also empower the INS to deport Bamidele.” Id. at 564. Allowing deportation in such circumstances would “effectively read § 246(a) out of existence.” Id. at 562.
William F. Henning, Esq., South Orange, NJ, for Petitioner.
“If, at any time within five years after the status of a person has been otherwise adjusted under the provisions of section 1255 or 1259 of this title or any other provision of law to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Attorney General that the person was not in fact eligible for such adjustment of status, the Attorney General shall rescind the action taken granting an adjustment of status to such person and cancelling deportation in the case of such person if that occurred and the person shall thereupon be subject to all provisions of this chapter to the same extent as if the adjustment of status had not been made.”
After this Court decided Bamidele, Congress added the following language to the end of
“Nothing in this subsection shall require the Attorney General to rescind the alien‘s status prior to commencement of procedures to remove the alien under section 240 [,
8 U.S.C. § 1229a ], and an order of removal issued by an immigration judge shall be sufficient to rescind the alien‘s status.”
The BIA held in the case before us that Bamidele is not applicable because the amendment to
We decided the matter of deference in Bamidele, explaining that
We are bound by precedential opinions of our Court unless they have been reversed by an en banc proceeding or have been adversely affected by an opinion of the Supreme Court. In re Cont‘l Airlines, 134 F.3d 536, 542 (3d Cir.1998). Because the amendment to
The DHS, however, also maintains that the amendment to
Our first step is to scrutinize the text of the amendment. It has two clear provisions:
(1) The Attorney General may remove an alien without taking steps to rescind an adjustment of status; and
(2) An order of removal by an immigration judge is sufficient to rescind the alien‘s status.
It is significant that the amendment does not invalidate nor modify nor refer in any respect to the statutory language “within five years” after the adjustment. The five-year text remains in the statute. Although the DHS would limit its application to rescission only, removing any statute of limitations to removal under
The DHS argument is a repetition of what we rejected in Bamidele. We observed that the statute of limitations bar on deportation is narrow and quoted approvingly the BIA opinion In re Belenzo, 17 I. & N. Dec. 374 (1981), where the Board said that
The amendment still contemplates relief from deportation. If this result is anomalous, as the DHS appears to believe, Congress created the anomaly and is free to eliminate it.3
We are aware of Asika v. Ashcroft, 362 F.3d 264, 267 (4th Cir.2004), a post-amendment case that disagreed with Bamidele and deferred to the DHS‘s interpretation of
We conclude that Bamidele retains its precedential authority and counsels us to grant the petition for review.5
II.
The government also argues that pursuant to
In Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 525 U.S. 471, 119 S.Ct. 936, 142 L.Ed.2d 940 (1999), the Supreme Court rejected “the unexamined assumption that § 1252(g) covers the universe of deportation claims—that it is a sort of ‘zipper’ clause that says ‘no judicial review in deportation cases unless this section provides judicial review.‘” Id. at 482. The Court held that section 1252(g) “applies only to three discrete actions that the Attorney General may take: her ‘decision or action’ to ‘commence proceedings, adjudicate cases, or execute removal orders.‘” Id.; see also id. at 483 (Section 1252(g) “performs the function of categorically excluding from non-final-order judicial review ... certain specified decisions and actions of the INS.” (Emphasis added)).
Despite its apparent broad reach, therefore, § 242(g) “is to be read narrowly and precisely” to prevent review only of the three narrow discretionary decisions or actions referred to in the statute. Sabhari v. Reno, 197 F.3d 938, 942 (8th Cir.1999); see also Fornalik v. Perryman, 223 F.3d 523, 531 (7th Cir.2000). Thus, the section “has nothing to do with petitions for review of final orders of deportation, or indeed with any sort of review of such orders.” Shah v. Reno, 184 F.3d 719, 722 (8th Cir.1999).
Garcia is not challenging the discretionary decision to commence proceedings, but is challenging the government‘s very authority to commence those proceedings after the limitation period has expired. Thus, § 242(g) is not implicated, and we have jurisdiction to review the BIA‘s decision as a final order pursuant to
Accordingly, we will grant Garcia‘s petition for review, vacate the BIA‘s decision, and remand for further proceedings.
FUENTES, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
In 1996 Rosalba Garcia was granted permanent residency, based in part on a sworn statement falsely claiming that Dinorah Landestoy, a U.S. citizen, was her mother. Landestoy was, in fact, her aunt. Eight years later, DHS learned of the deception and, determining Garcia was never lawfully admitted, commenced removal proceedings. The majority reasons that, despite her false statement, Garcia cannot be removed because more than five years have passed since her fraud occurred. However, I believe that under a plain reading of
I.
By its own terms,
This, I believe, is the more appropriate plain reading of
The 1996 amendment of
II.
The majority‘s reliance on Bamidele in departing from this plain language is misplaced because the circumstances surrounding the removal here are quite different. In Bamidele, the government became aware of the alien‘s removability within five years of his adjustment of status yet failed to act. In this case, the government did not realize Garcia had made a misrepresentation until that five year window had expired.6 To deny removal in this case would reward Garcia for the successful concealment of her fraud.7
Furthermore, we have the authority to reevaluate the otherwise controlling interpretation of a statute where its language has subsequently been amended. See Reich v. D.M. Sabia Co., 90 F.3d 854, 858 (3d Cir.1996). The 1996 amendment had been enacted, but was not yet effective when Bamidele was issued. Bamidele did not discuss the pending amendment. But even before the 1996 amendment, other courts applying
Our adherence to the interpretation in Bamidele has placed us out of step with every other circuit to address
The majority contends that if its interpretation of
III.
I do not rest my dissent on the position that we must grant Chevron deference to the BIA‘s construction of
Moreover, were we to view the BIA‘s decision through the lens of Chevron deference, Bamidele would clearly no longer be binding. In Bamidele itself, we stated that “We express no opinion as to whether ... any other subsequent amendments to the Act would make someone in Bamidele‘s position deportable.” Bamidele, 99 F.3d at 565. Although the 1996 modification was not a drastic one, it offered a reasonable basis for the BIA to reject Bamidele as no longer applicable, and we should defer to that decision.
IV.
In short, I believe the majority‘s decision strays impermissibly far from the language of
