Francesco Foti, A/K/A Frank Foti v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

308 F.2d 779, 1962 U.S. App. LEXIS 4074
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 21, 1962
Docket27345_1
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 308 F.2d 779 (Francesco Foti, A/K/A Frank Foti v. Immigration and Naturalization Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Francesco Foti, A/K/A Frank Foti v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 308 F.2d 779, 1962 U.S. App. LEXIS 4074 (2d Cir. 1962).

Opinions

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge.

Foti is a resident alien who entered this country on a seaman’s visa and stayed illegally for ten years, leaving his wife and three children in Italy. When deportation proceedings were instituted, he conceded his deportability, but applied to the Attorney General for relief under § 244(a) (5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1254(a) (5), which provides that “the Attorney General may, in his discretion, suspend 'deportation and adjust the status to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, in the case of an alien who * * * is a person whose deportation would, in the opinion of the Attorney General, result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the alien * * The Attorney General, through his Special Inquiry Officer, ruled that Foti did not qualify as a case of “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship,” and therefore that no ground to exercise the granted discretion arose, but permitted voluntary departure. The decision was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals, and Foti now seeks to have us review it under § 106 of the Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1105a, enacted Sept. 26, 1961, 75 Stat. 651, providing for review of final orders of deportation by courts of appeals by petition for review brought within six months.

Although the Immigration and Naturalization Service joins the petitioner in urging us to assume jurisdiction, in contrast to the position it has taken elsewhere, the matter is one that we must determine on our own account. The panel which heard the case upheld jurisdiction by a 2-1 vote, Judges Clark and Hineks forming the majority and the writer dissenting. Because of the important consequences of a decision that the recent Congressional grant to the courts of appeals of exclusive jurisdiction to review “final orders of deportation” was not in fact limited to such orders, as the language of the statute would indicate, but extended also'to the variety of discretionary orders withholding or suspending deportation which the Attorney General is authorized to make, this ease and the companion case of Ng Yen, 308 F.2d 796, were deemed appropriate for in banc consideration. This has resulted in a determination, four judges dissenting, that we have no jurisdiction, the majority believing that although decision either way has its difficulties, there is no sufficient reason for expanding the words used by Congress beyond their well-understood meaning.

The text we must construe is § 106, added to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 in 1961, 75 Stat. 651, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1105a. This directs, § 106 (a), that “The procedure prescribed by, and all the provisions of the Act of December 29, 1950, as amended (64 Stat. 1129; 68 Stat. 961; 5 U.S.C. 1031 et seq.),” providing for review in the courts of appeals of certain orders of the Federal Communications Commission, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Federal Maritime Board (and its predecessors), and the Atomic Energy Commission, “shall apply to, and shall be the sole and exclusive procedure for, the judicial review of all final orders of deportation heretofore or hereafter made against aliens within the United States pursuant to administrative proceedings under section 242(b) of this Act or comparable provisions of any prior Act * * * ”

Section 242 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1252, sets up a comprehensive procedure to determine the deportability of an alien. Section 242(b), into which the new statute is expressly keyed, directs that “A special inquiry officer shall conduct proceedings under this section to determine the deportability of any alien,” states in great detail how this shall be done, and lays down that “The procedure so prescribed shall be the sole and exclusive procedure for determining the de-portability of an alien under this section.” This specification of procedural safeguards is immediately followed by § 242(c), providing that “When a final or[781]*781der of deportation under administrative processes is made against any alien, the Attorney General shall have a period of six months from the date of such order, or, if judicial review is had, then from the date of the final order of the court, within which to effect the alien’s departure from the United States * * * ”; during that period the alien may be detained. Section 242(d) adds that “Any alien, against whom a final order of deportation as defined in subsection (c) of this section, heretofore or hereafter issued has been outstanding for more than six months, shall, pending eventual deportation, be subject to supervision under regulations prescribed by the Attorney General”, and § 242(e) imposes a criminal penalty upon “Any alien against whom a final order of deportation is outstanding by reason of being a member of any of the classes” described in certain paragraphs of § 241(a) who wilfully fails or refuses to depart “within a period of six months from the date of the final order of deportation under administrative processes, or, if judicial review is had, then from the date of the final order of the court * * * ” When Congress, in 1961, gave the courts of appeals jurisdiction to review “final orders of deportation * * * made against aliens within the United States pursuant to administrative proceedings under section 242(b) of this Act or comparable provisions of any prior Act,” it was thus using a term of art which had been used repeatedly in § 242 and possessed a well-understood meaning. We have already decided at least two such cases, Dentico v. I. N. S., 303 F.2d 137 (2 Cir. 1962), and Schoeler v. I. N. S., 306 F.2d 460 (2 Cir. 1962), where a “final order of deportation” was challenged, see also fn. 3 to Judge Clark’s dissenting opinion.

Under the “prior Act[s],” 39 Stat. 889-890 (1917) and 43 Stat. 162 (1924), deportation, once determined, was generally mandatory. However, Congress has supplemented the deportation provisions contained in such acts and in § 242 of the 1952 Act, by other provisions giving the Attorney General a wide gamut of discretionary withholding and dispensing powers. Section 243(h), 8 U.S.C.A. § 1253(h), authorizes him’“to withhold deportation of any alien within the United States to any country in which in his opinion the alien would be subject to physical persecution and for such period of time as he deems to be necessary for such reason.” Section 244(a), 8 U.S.C.A. § 1254(a), provides that he “may, in his discretion, suspend deportation and adjust the status to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence” in five different categories of cases.1 Sections 244(b) and (c), 8 U.S.C.A. § 1254(b) and (c), direct that when the Attorney General has so suspended deportation, he is to report to Congress. In certain instances the Attorney General is to cancel deportation proceedings unless a house of Congress votes to the contrary; in others he is to deport unless Congress passes a concurrent resolution favoring suspension or if either house passes a resolution not favoring suspension. Finally § 244(e), 8 U.S.C.A.

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Bluebook (online)
308 F.2d 779, 1962 U.S. App. LEXIS 4074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/francesco-foti-aka-frank-foti-v-immigration-and-naturalization-service-ca2-1962.