Giuseppe GIAMBANCO, Petitioner, v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE.
No. 75-1401
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Decided Feb. 25, 1976.
Rehearing En Banc Denied July 9, 1976.
Submitted Under Third Circuit Rule 12(6) Oct. 29, 1975. As Amended April 14, 1976. As Amended May 14 and June 10, 1976.
Before GIBBONS, BIGGS and WEIS, Circuit Judges.
James J. Orlow, Wasserman, Orlow, Kaye & Rubin, Philadelphia, Pa., for petitioner.
B. Franklin Taylor, James P. Morris, Chester J. Halicki, John L. Murphy, Dept.
OPINION OF THE COURT
BIGGS, Circuit Judge.
This is a petition for review of an order from the Board of Immigration Appeal‘s refusal to overturn an immigration judge‘s denial of Giambanco‘s petition for adjustment of status and waiver of a ground of excludability under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Giambanco bases his claim on his marriage to a United States citizen and requests permanent resident status on the strength of his wife‘s relative-immigrant visa petition. In addition, Giambanco has filed a motion of remand in this court to allow the Board of Immigration Appeals to consider the birth of a citizen child to Giambanco and his citizen wife subsequent to the Board‘s finding. This Court has jurisdiction under
FACTS
Giambanco, an Italian citizen, entered this country on November 11, 1969, under a visitor for pleasure visa. He was authorized to stay until November 1, 1970. He overstayed and on April 26, 1971, admitted deportability before a special inquiry officer. He was given a month within which to voluntarily depart. Giambanco failed to depart by that time and on May 20, 1971, entered into a marriage with a United States citizen that was subsequently found to be designed to defraud the United States to obtain a permanent residence visa,
His first marriage ended on August 20, 1973, and, after approximately two weeks, Giambanco married the daughter of one of his co-conspirators in the fraud. On the basis of his wife‘s citizenship, Giambanco petitioned to reopen his deportation hearing. He sought an adjustment of status to that of a permanent resident under INA section 245,
LAW
This action presents two questions of law. First, does the Administrative Procedure Act of 1966 (APA),
I.
Giambanco argues that the presence of the two former attorneys in the office of the Immigration Service‘s General Counsel, Irving Appleman, Esq., and David Milhollan, Esq., on the Board violated his right to due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. Further, in his reply brief, Giambanco raises for the first time, a possible violation of section 5 of the APA,
In response, the government has filed with its brief affidavits from Appleman, Milhollan and Vincent. Both Appleman and Milhollan aver that they had no connection with the case prior to becoming Board members and that they were not influenced by Vincent‘s involvement in the case. Milhollan goes further and states that there was no discussion of the case in conference after he became a member of the Board. Presumably, he and Appleman voted solely on the basis of the record. There is no indication whether they listened to a recording of or read the oral argument after becoming members of the Board. The Board‘s vote on the Giambanco dismissal was unanimous.
The issue is presented whether the APA‘s section 5 requirement of separation of adjudicative and prosecutorial functions,
Various discretionary authorities of the Attorney General under the INA have been found limited by the requirements of the
Complexity problems aside, this result is compelled by the language of section 242 itself. The Board has been established at the Attorney General‘s discretion to implement the statutory requirements of deportation and exclusion under the INA. Subsection (b)(4) requires that the Attorney General assure by regulation that all deportations be made on grounds of “reasonable substantial and probative evidence“. The Attorney General is to see under subsection (c) that deportation is carried out in a proper manner after the final order “under administrative processes is made.” On these matters the Attorney General‘s determinations are to be administratively final.4
To carry out these section 242 duties, as well as his exclusion obligations, the Attorney General has established the Board under 8 CFR § 3.1. In reviewing the findings of the immigration judge, the Board acts as the Attorney General‘s surrogate to insure that the rights and privileges of the alien are protected and that deportation is undertaken only on the basis of sufficient evidence. The Board has been made by the Attorney General a central part of his implementation of section 242. Thus the exclusive procedure language of section 242 should apply to exempt the Board from the APA under Marcello. When the Board is asked to adjust a hearing determination under section 245 or waive a ground of excludability under section 212(h), it is acting as an integral part of the exempt section 242 procedure. The Board was in existence at the time of the passage of the INA and there is no indication that it was not intended by Congress to operate in conjunction with the exempt specialized hearing procedures of section 242.5 To find the
Accordingly, we hold that the APA has no relevance to Board review of dismissals of the section 245 and 212(h) claims here.7
II.
However, the second question of law presents a difficult problem. When Congress has explicitly removed a factor as a basis for deportation, can that factor ever be used by the Attorney General under section 245 to deny discretionary relief?
This question is of first impression in this circuit. In this Court‘s en banc decision in Ameeriar v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 438 F.2d 1028 (3d Cir. 1971), cert. dismissed, 404 U.S. 801, 92 S.Ct. 21, 30 L.Ed.2d 34 (1972), a close variation of the issue was implicitly raised, but not expressly addressed. There the petitioner attempted to reopen his section 242 deportation determination by seeking section 245 adjustment of status. The court was required to interpret a 1960 amendment to section 245, Act of July 14, 1960, Pub. L. No. 86-848, § 10, 74 Stat. 505, amending
It is clear from the opinion of the immigration judge that Giambanco‘s fraud conviction was a factor, if not the only factor
The Attorney General as promulgated no regulations to aid the immigration judge‘s exercise of discretion when sections 241(b)(2) and 245 are jointly applicable.9 The Immigration and Naturalization Service has ruled that section 241(b) applies to both exclusion and deportation proceedings.10 Generally, discretion under the INA can only be exercised after the statutory prerequisites have been satisfied.11 The INA House Report is silent as to section 241(b)(2)‘s effect on an adjustment of status determination,12 nor does the legislative history of section 245 add any
A.
Under the relevant portion of section 241(a)(4), an alien is to be deported if he or she is “convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years after entry and either sentenced to confinement or confined therefor in a prison or corrective institution, for a year or more ...” Section 241(b)(2) makes this section inapplicable “if the court sentencing such alien for such crime shall make, at the time of first imposing judgment or passing sentence, or within thirty days thereafter, a recommendation to the Attorney General that such alien not be deported, due notice having been given prior to making such recommendation to representatives of the interested State, the Service, and prosecution authorities, who shall be granted an opportunity to make representations in the matter.” (emphasis supplied).
Here, the judge at the fraud trial, Judge Gorbey, certified that the Service was represented at the time of his recommendation.15 Judge Gorbey made the determination, as a matter of judicial discretion, that, based upon all the facts leading to the conviction, that this conviction should not be a basis for deportation. The Service argues that it should be free at its discretion to effectively overturn that recommendation, although (1) its proceeding was far more procedurally informal than the trial over which Judge Gorbey presided; and (2) the Service‘s inquiry in its proceeding ranged perforce far beyond the facts leading to the conviction, making the Service less able to weigh the conviction facts as thoroughly.16 Thus Judge Gorbey was more able to ascertain the extent of moral turpitude involved in this conviction. Also he had the benefit of the Service‘s expertise and experience.
On these grounds we feel that Judge Gorbey‘s discretionary determination should supersede that of the Service. To hold otherwise would make meaningless section 241(b)(2)‘s requirement that the Service be represented before the trial judge; for the Service would have no incentive to make a showing, if as a matter of discretion, in a later proceeding under its control it could effectively overturn the trial judge‘s determination.
B.
Further, the Service‘s own treatment of the closely-related conviction expungement cases supports this result. Here, the Service argues that while section 241(b)(2) prevents the use of the fraud conviction as the sole basis for deportation, the Service can take it into account as a factor in its discretionary adjustment of status determination. However, the Service itself has held under section 241(a)(4) that state law expungement of alien convictions removes the use of convictions as a basis for deportation, with no hint of a discretionary use excep-
We review the federal and state expungement precedent because the same consideration control the effect of section 241(b)(2) judicial recommendation. Both suggest the conclusion that the alien is not to be punished further by deportation. As the Supreme Court noted with respect to the predecessor of section 241(a)(4):
We resolve the doubts in favor of [the alien] because deportation is a drastic measure and at times the equivalent of banishment or exile, Delgadillo v. Carmichael, 332 U.S. 388. It is the forfeiture for misconduct of a residence in this country. Such a forfeiture is a penalty. To construe this statutory provision less generously to the alien might find support in logic. But since the stakes are considerable for the individual, we will not assume that Congress meant to trench on his freedom beyond that which is required by the narrowest of several possible meanings of the words used.
Fong Haw Tan v. Phelan, 333 U.S. 6, 10, 68 S.Ct. 374, 376, 92 L.Ed. 433, 436 (1948). A judicial recommendation of no deportation, like the federally or state mandated expungement, on its face is designed to prevent the levy of additional penalties over and above that which the original court found appropriate.21 Here, given the nature of Giambanco‘s fraud, Judge Gorbey awarded a two-year suspended sentence. To say that this penalty is now to be augmented by a penalty of banishment, despite
Accordingly, in order (1) to maintain the integrity of the deportation recommendation of the trial judge; (2) to have the discretionary determination made by the actor best able to make it; and (3) to avoid a possibly unjust penalization of aliens such as Giambanco, we hold that the Service cannot take into account as a matter of discretion under section 245 Giambanco‘s prior fraud conviction in determining whether he is entitled to adjustment of deportation status.
Since this question is one of first impression in this circuit, this Court will not remand as Giambanco requested without going, as we have seen, to this issue, even though the birth of a citizen child after the Board‘s findings may be of some relevance to adjustment of status. However, the prior fraud conviction issue needed to be resolved as a matter of law before any new proceeding went forward. We will reverse and remand this case to the Board for further determination consistent with this opinion and expressly direct the Board to consider the birth of Giambanco‘s citizen child as a factor in its deliberations.22
GIBBONS, Circuit Judge (dissenting).
Although the Administrative Procedure Act,
I conclude that § 5(c) of the APA governs these proceedings before the BIA. In my view the majority opinion ignores the Supreme Court‘s reasoning in Marcello v. Bonds in extending the exemption of deportation hearings from coverage by the APA to administrative review of those hearings by the BIA. By so holding the majority ignores as well an express congressional pronouncement and sound policy reasons in favor of APA coverage.
I
In order to determine whether or not the procedural requirements of the APA govern BIA proceedings, a brief review of the interrelationship between that statute and the INA is in order. Until 1950 it was generally thought, and with good reason, that deportation hearings were exempt
This subchapter does not supersede the conduct of specified classes of proceedings, in whole or in part, by or before boards or other employees specially provided for by or designated under statute.5
Immigration inspectors who presided over deportation hearings were “specially provided for by or designated pursuant to” § 16 of the Immigration Act. Act of February 5, 1917, 39 Stat. 885. Moreover, § 5 of the APA applied only to cases of “adjudication required by statute” and there was no express requirement for any hearing or adjudication in the provision of the Immigration Act of 1917 authorizing deportation.6 Act of February 5, 1917, 39 Stat. 887. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Saclarides v. Shaughnessy, 180 F.2d 687 (2d Cir. 1950); Azzollini v. Watkins, 172 F.2d 897 (2d Cir. 1949). Contra, United States ex rel. Trinler v. Carusi, 166 F.2d 457 (3d Cir.), rev‘d on other grounds, 168 F.2d 1014 (3d Cir. 1948).
In Wong Yang Sung v. McGrath, 339 U.S. 33, 70 S.Ct. 445, 94 L.Ed. 616 (1950), however, the Supreme Court held that the APA governed deportation hearings because while not statutorily mandated they were constitutionally required. 339 U.S. at 50, 70 S.Ct. 445. Justice Jackson, writing for the majority of the Court, announced that “it is the plain duty of the courts, regardless of their views of the wisdom or policy of the Act [the APA], to construe this remedial legislation to eliminate, so far as its text permits, the practices it condemns.” 339 U.S. at 45, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626. Applying this broad policy to the issue of deportation hearings, he continued:
The Administrative Procedure Act did not go so far as to require a complete separation of investigating and prosecuting functions from adjudicating functions. But that the safeguards it did set up were intended to ameliorate the evils from the commingling of functions as exemplified here is beyond doubt. And this commingling, if objectionable anywhere, would seem to be particularly so in the deportation proceeding, where we frequently meet with a voteless class of litigants who not only lack the influence of citizens, but who are strangers to the laws and customs in which they find themselves involved and who often do not even understand the tongue in which they are accused. Nothing in the nature of the parties or proceedings suggests that we should strain to exempt deportation proceedings from reforms in administrative procedure applicable generally to federal agencies. 339 U.S. at 46, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626.
Despite its potential for wider application in immigration proceedings, the Wong Yang Sung decision was strictly interpreted by lower federal courts to govern only deportation and not exclusion hearings. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Frisch v. Miller, 181 F.2d 360 (5th Cir. 1950). Congress, moreover, in a rider to the Supplementary Appropriations Act of 1951, 64 Stat. 1048, negated the effect of Wong Yang Sung by specifically exempting deportation and exclusion hearings from the provisions of Sections 5, 7 and 8 of the APA.7 Thus, until passage of the INA in 1952 it was clear that the procedural requirements of the APA did not govern deportation and exclusion hearings. Whether or not the APA would apply to other immigration proceedings, however, was never determined.
But the Court in Marcello v. Bonds did not discuss the relationship between the APA and other immigration proceedings besides deportation hearings. What the Court did establish in that decision, however, was a method of analysis to employ in discovering the interrelationship between the two acts. A court must compare the INA with analogous provisions of the APA to determine if Congress meant to adapt the procedural safeguards of the APA to the particular needs of the INS. In cases of doubt, the court should refer to the legislative history of both acts for guidance. But the fundamental presumption underlying this analysis is that where Congress has not specifically deviated from the APA by either adaptations of its provisions within the INA itself or statements in the legislative history, the APA should govern. 349 U.S. at 310, 75 S.Ct. 757. This presumption is consistent with the language and policy of § 12 of the APA,
II
Careful scrutiny of the provisions of the INA discloses that the BIA is not mentioned anywhere in the 119 page Act. Despite vigorous attempts to provide for the creation by statute of the BIA, the INA left it to be established and governed only by regulations of the Attorney General pursuant to his authority under § 103(a),
Unlike appellate courts, on questions of fact the Board is not limited to a determination if there was substantial evidence upon which the finding of the Special Inquiry Officer was based. The Board has the power and authority to review the record and makes its own conclusions as to facts. ... In a word, the Board may make a de novo review of the record and makes its considerations and findings irrespective of those made by the Special Inquiry Officer.
Finucane, Procedure Before the Board of Immigration Appeals, 31 Int. Rel. 26 (Jan. 22, 1954).
See, e. g., Noverola-Bolaina v. Immigration & Nat. Serv., 395 F.2d 131, 135-36 (9th Cir. 1968); Matter of B, 7 I. & N. Dec. 1, 36 (1956). But the regulations governing the BIA contain no mandatory disqualification provision similar to § 5(c) of the APA or § 242(b) of the INA. Thus, if the majority position is adopted, the alien has no greater procedural protection at Board proceedings than the requirements of the due process clause even though he does have the safeguards afforded by § 242(b) of the INA during proceedings conducted by immigration judges. This anomaly is never discussed by the majority but is probably attributable to their assumption that greater procedural protections are afforded at hearings conducted by immigration judges only because Congress expressly granted them in § 242(b).
This assumption, however, conflicts with the reasoning of Marcello v. Bonds and the legislative history of the INA. The House adopted a proposal to give the BIA statutory status but this provision was eliminated in conference. See 98 Cong. Rec. 4401; H.R.Rep. No. 1365, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. 36 (1952); S.Rep. No. 1137, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. pt. 2 at 8. (Minority Rep. on S. 2550) (1952). The reason for the rejection of a statutory BIA, according to Congressional testimony, was to prevent an independent board set up within the Department of Justice from possessing the authority to set aside the decisions of the head of that department, the Attorney General. See 98 Cong. Rec. 5778-5781 (1952). Thus Congress made an accommodation with the portion of § 5(c) of the APA which prohibits an agency employee engaged in adjudication from being “responsible to or subject to the supervision or direction of any officer, employee or agent engaged in the performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for an agency.” But this decision cannot be interpreted to mean that Congress intended that all proceedings before the Board be exempt from the APA. Indeed the evidence suggests a contrary view.
Senator McCarran, the senatorial sponsor of both the APA and the INA as well as the leader of the opposition to the statutory creation of the BIA, concluded that:
Except in cases of proceedings under section 235(c), relating to security cases, the
provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act are made applicable to all proceedings before the Board of Immigration Appeals, thereby providing judicial review in exclusion cases. 98 Cong. Rec. 5778 (1952) (remarks by Senator McCarran) (emphasis added).
Senator McCarran‘s interpretation is supported by the language of the proposals for a statutory BIA themselves, which did not provide for any special procedural safeguards. See 98 Cong. Rec. 4401 (remarks of Representative Celler), 5778 (remarks of Senator Moody). Presumably no procedural safeguards were included in these statutory proposals because even these congressmen believed that the APA would govern review proceedings.
Thus, applying the same reasoning and analysis which Justice Clark employed in Marcello v. Bonds, I conclude that § 5(c) governs these review proceedings. The majority opinion rejects this conclusion for two reasons. First, the majority urges that leaving the initial hearing examiner exempt from the APA while requiring the Board to comply would be an anomalous result. There is no such anomaly, because Congress in the INA dealt specifically with the procedural safeguards applicable to the initial hearing, but did not deal with the nonstatutory Board of Appeals. Next the majority argues that the language of § 242(b) of the INA expressly stating that the procedure outlined for determining deportability “shall be the sole and exclusive procedure” should also apply to the Board. This argument, however, ignores the fact that no procedural safeguards have been outlined in the statute for the conduct of Board proceedings and the additional fact that the Board has been given a wider scope of jurisdiction than just review of deportation decisions. Moreover, as Justice Clark argued in Marcello v. Bonds, this provision of § 242(b) refers to Congress’ intent to exempt initial deportation hearings from APA coverage. It does not address the question of what procedures should govern the review of those proceedings which the Attorney General has directed the BIA to provide.
III
The most important reasons for applying § 5(c) of the APA to these cases, of course, are not these basic rules of statutory interpretation but rather the policy and purpose of the APA which Justice Jackson first announced in the context of immigration proceedings in Wong Yang Sung. While the impact of the Wong Yang Sung holding upon deportation hearings has been substantially altered by later cases and the passage of the INA, its broad policy analysis is still applicable to other immigration proceedings.
Certainly the commingling of the functions of advocacy and adjudication at stake in these cases was one of the undesirable features of the administrative process which the APA was designed to remedy. See Rep. Atty. Gen. Comm. Ad. Proc. 56 (1941), S. Doc. No. 8, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 56 (1941). Given Justice Jackson‘s direction to the courts “to construe this remedial legislation to eliminate, so far as its text permits, the practices it condemns“,10 we should not hesitate to extend the procedural safeguards of the APA to cases before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Moreover, just as Justice Jackson concluded in the case of deportation hearings, “nothing in the nature of the parties or proceedings suggests that we should strain to exempt ... [these] proceedings from reforms in administrative procedure applicable generally to federal agencies.” 339 U.S. at 46, 70 S.Ct. at 452, 94 L.Ed. at 626. Finally, since Board appeals are often intimately connected with a prior deportation hearing, the absence of procedural safeguards afforded to a petitioner at this stage of the deportation process is as “particularly” objectionable as the absence of such safeguards at the hearing itself. We are just as likely to meet a “voteless class of litigants who not only lack the influence of citizens, but who are strangers to the laws and customs in which they find themselves in-
Even if the legislative history did not lead me to the conclusion that the mandatory disqualification provision of § 5(c) of the APA applies, these policy considerations would. The APA is precisely the type of remedial statute which provides courts with a broad congressional judgment regarding administrative policy to which they should refer in establishing rules of decision in this area, especially in cases of first impression. Even if not literally applicable, the statute is a significant precedent. Those familiar with the history of the interrelationship of the APA and INA will recognize immediately that there has been a continuous dialogue between the courts and Congress on such issues as now confront this court. See, e. g. Note, Deportation and Exclusion: A Continuing Dialogue Between Congress and the Courts, 71 Yale L.J. 760 (1962). With this in mind I believe we should hold that the APA applies and expect Congress to overrule us as if we have misinterpreted its original intention or erroneously anticipated its later judgment.
In summary, § 5(c) of the APA governs these appeals and requires us to remand it to the Board to determine if the members in question had participated or advised in a “factually related case.” I am not at all concerned, as the majority appears to be, that “[t]o apply the APA in these cases would interject needless complexity into what is designed to be a discretionary process.” Complexities are the very sinews of liberty, and simplification, in the sanctioning context, almost invariably the weapon of oppressors.