M. Fatima Guijosa De Sandoval v. U.S. Atty. Gen.

440 F.3d 1276, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 4937
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 27, 2006
Docket04-12223
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 440 F.3d 1276 (M. Fatima Guijosa De Sandoval v. U.S. Atty. Gen.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
M. Fatima Guijosa De Sandoval v. U.S. Atty. Gen., 440 F.3d 1276, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 4937 (11th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

BLACK, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner M. Fatima Guijosa De Sandoval seeks review of an April 27, 2004, order *1278 issued by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE), reinstating her August 27, 1999, expedited removal order. In her petition, Petitioner advances four arguments, each of which presents an issue of first impression in our circuit: (1) the Attorney General exceeded his authority in promulgating 8 C.F.R. § 241.8, which empowers an immigration officer, rather than an immigration judge, to reinstate the previous removal order of an alien who illegally reenters the United States; (2) § 1231(a)(5) is impermissibly retroactive as applied to her, even though she illegally reentered the United States after that statute took effect; (3) she is not subject to § 1231(a)(5) because that section conflicts with and was superseded by § 1255(i); and (4) 8 C.F.R. § 241.8 violates her procedural due process rights. 1 We deny her petition.

I. BACKGROUND

The facts are not in dispute. Petitioner was born in Mexico in 1968 and married her husband there in 1988. She first entered the United States without inspection in approximately June 1995. On September 18, 1995, Petitioner’s husband, then a lawful permanent resident of the United States, filed a visa petition on her behalf, accompanied by Petitioner’s application for adjustment of status. Although the visa petition was granted, Petitioner’s application for adjustment of status was denied on January 8, 1996, because her priority date was not yet current.

At some point in 1999, Petitioner returned to Mexico. On August 6, 1999, she tried to reenter the United States using an Arrival/Departure Form with a counterfeit parole stamp. The following day, after an interview with an immigration officer in which she admitted using a counterfeit parole stamp, she was ordered removed pursuant to the expedited removal proceedings set forth in 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1).

In violation of her removal order, Petitioner reentered the United States without inspection on or about August 8, 1999. On April 23, 2002, she filed a second application for adjustment of status, based on the fact her husband became a naturalized U.S. citizen on March 27, 2002. When she appeared for her April 27, 2004, interview with the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Immigration Services (BCIS) regarding her second adjustment of status application, she was arrested by BICE. The same day, BICE issued a Notice of Intent/Decision to Reinstate Removal Order against Petitioner, indicating it was reinstating her August 7, 1999, removal order. This petition for review followed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review questions of statutory interpretation and other issues of law de novo. See United States v. Trainor, 376 F.3d 1325, 1330 (11th Cir.2004). When reviewing an agency’s interpretation of a statute it administers, however, we apply the two-step test articulated in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). See also Lewis v. Barnhart, 285 F.3d 1329, 1333 (11th Cir.2002). The first step in the Chevron analysis requires us to *1279 determine whether “Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue.” Chevron, 467 U.S. at 842, 104 S.Ct. at 2781. If Congress clearly expressed its purpose, and the agency’s regulation conflicts with this purpose, then we must set aside the regulation. See id. at 843 n. 9, 104 S.Ct. at 2781-82 n. 9.

On the other hand, if Congress has not directly addressed the issue, or the statute’s language is ambiguous, then we must move to the second Chevron step and decide “whether the agency’s [regulation] is based on a permissible construction of the statute.” Id. at 843, 104 S.Ct. at 2782. To uphold an agency’s statutory interpretation, we “need not conclude that the agency construction was the only one it permissibly could have adopted ..., or even the reading the court would have reached if the question initially had arisen in a judicial proceeding.” Id. at 843 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. at 2782 n. 11. Deference to an agency’s interpretation of a statute “is especially appropriate in the immigration context where officials ‘exercise especially sensitive political functions that implicate questions of foreign relations.’ ” INS v. Aguirre-Aguirre, 526 U.S. 415, 425, 119 S.Ct. 1439, 1445, 143 L.Ed.2d 590 (1999) (quoting INS v. Abudu, 485 U.S. 94, 110, 108 S.Ct. 904, 915, 99 L.Ed.2d 90 (1988)).

III. DISCUSSION

A. Did the Attorney General Exceed His Authority in Promulgating 8 C.F.R. § 2U.8?

Petitioner argues 8 C.F.R. § 241.8 is ultra vires because it allows an immigration officer to reinstate an illegal reen-trant’s existing removal order without providing the alien a hearing before an immigration judge. The Attorney General promulgated 8 C.F.R. § 241.8 under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(5). As part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), Pub.L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996), Congress repealed § 1252(f), 2 the former statute governing the reinstatement of removal orders, and replaced it with § 1231(a)(5). This new reinstatement statute provides:

If the Attorney General finds that an alien has reentered the United States illegally after having been removed or having departed voluntarily, under an order of removal, the prior order of removal is reinstated from its original date and is not subject to being reopened or reviewed, the alien is not eligible and may not apply for any relief under this chapter, and the alien shall be removed under the prior order at any time after the reentry.

§ 1231(a)(5). Section 1231(a)(5) made three significant changes to its predecessor statute.

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Bluebook (online)
440 F.3d 1276, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 4937, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/m-fatima-guijosa-de-sandoval-v-us-atty-gen-ca11-2006.