Catholic Social Services, Inc. v. Meese

Decision Date17 June 1987
Docket NumberNo. Civ. S-86-1343 LKK.,Civ. S-86-1343 LKK.
Citation664 F. Supp. 1378
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of California
PartiesCATHOLIC SOCIAL SERVICES, INC.; National Center for Immigrants' Rights, Inc.; United-California Mexican American Assoc.; American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations; United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO; La Communidad De San Juan; Sara Orantes De Palacios; Mercedes Aguilar De Lopez; Maria Teresa Reyes; Jose Guerrero Saravia; Efren Gonzalez; Lorenza Sanchez Benuto; Carlos Alberto Medina; Benjamin Chavez; Sergio Will; Eva Garcia De Soto; Petra Estrada De Vasquez, Plaintiffs, v. Edwin MEESE, III, Attorney General of the United States of America, Defendant.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Ralph Santiago Abascal, Stephen Rosenbaum, Jose R. Padilla, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., San Francisco, Cal., Ricardo Cordova, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., Modesto, Cal., for plaintiffs Aguilar de Lopez, Reyes, and Gonzalez.

Peter A. Schey, National Center for Imigrants' Rights, Inc., Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs Saravia, Sanchez Benuto, Medina, United California Mexican-American Ass'n, National Center For Immigrants' Rights, Inc., United Farm Workers of America (AFL-CIO), Orantes Palacios, Chavez, de Soto and Estrado de Vasquez.

Elizabeth Sandoval Catholic Social Services, Inc., Centro Guadalupe Immigration Center, Sacramento, Cal., for plaintiffs Catholic Social Services, Inc., Centro Guadalupe Immigration Center, and Reyes.

Michael Rubin, Altshuler & Berzon, San Francisco, Cal., for American Federal of Labor-Congress of Indus. Organizations (AFL-CIO).

Robert Rubin, Ignatius Bau, National Refugee Rights Project, San Francisco Lawyers' Committee for Urban Affairs, Lynn H. Pasahow, Beth A. Finley, Patrick Broderick, Edward Lopez, McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, San Francisco, Cal., for La Communidad de San Juan, Will.

David F. Levi, U.S. Atty., Glyndell Earl Williams, Sp. Asst. U.S. Atty., Sacramento, Cal., Lauri Steven Filppu, Deputy Director, Robert Kendall, Jr., Asst. Director, Linda B. Adams, Susan L. Kamlet, David V. Bernal, Attys., Office of Immigration Litigation, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civ. Div., Washington, D.C., for defendant.

ORDER

KARLTON, Chief Judge.

The above-captioned matter is before the court on various motions brought by plaintiffs which are disposed of herein.1 Only the motion for preliminary injunction requires extended discussion.2 Moreover, even as to that motion, the parties have settled various issues,3 and thus the sole remaining issue turns on the provisions of section 210(d) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act ("INA"), as amended by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 ("IRCA"), relating to a group of aliens known under the Act as special agricultural workers ("SAWs"). The underlying legal dispute between the parties concerns whether the Immigration & Naturalization Service ("INS") may exclude aliens apprehended after November 6, 1986 and before June 1, 1987, who can present nonfrivolous claims to eligibility for legalization as SAWs under section 210(a), when such aliens' last attempted entry into the United States occurred after November 6, 1986.

I STANDARDS FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

In the Ninth Circuit, two interrelated tests exist for determining the propriety of the issuance of a preliminary injunction. Under the first test, the court may not issue a preliminary injunction unless each of the following requirements are satisfied: (1) the moving party has demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits; (2) the moving party will suffer irreparable injury and has no adequate remedy at law if injunctive relief is not granted; (3) in balancing the equities, the non-moving party will not be harmed more than the moving party is helped by the injunction; and (4) granting the injunction is in the public interest. Martin v. International Olympic Committee, 740 F.2d 670, 674-75 (9th Cir. 1984). Under the second "alternative" test, the court may not issue a preliminary injunction unless the moving party demonstrates "either a combination of probable success on the merits and the possibility of irreparable injury or that serious questions are raised and the balance of hardships tips sharply in his favor." Id. Under the "alternative" test, the two standards are not separate and unrelated, "but rather `are the ends of a continuum; the greater the relative hardship to the moving party, the less probability of success must be shown.'" Diaz v. INS, 648 F.Supp. 638, 643 (E.D.Cal.1986) (quoting National Center for Immigrant Rights, Inc. v. INS, 743 F.2d 1365, 1369 (9th Cir.1984)). Under the second prong of the alternative test, the moving party must always demonstrate, at a minimum, that there is a "fair chance of success" on the merits, even if the balance of hardships tips sharply in its favor. Diaz, 648 F.Supp. at 643 (citing Martin, 740 F.2d at 675).

II THE STANDARDS OF STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

Plaintiffs seek an order restraining the INS from excluding any alien apprehended by INS who presents a nonfrivolous claim for legalization under section 210 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, as amended by IRCA.4 At issue is the INS' interpretation of section 210(d)(1)(A). That section provides:

BEFORE THE APPLICATION PERIOD — The Attorney General shall provide that in the case of an alien who is apprehended before the beginning of the application period described in subsection (a)(1) and who can establish a nonfrivolous case of eligibility to have his status adjusted under subsection (a) (but for the fact that he may not apply for such adjustment until the beginning of such period), until the alien has had the opportunity during the first 30 days of the application period to complete the filing of an application for adjustment, the alien—
(A) may not be excluded or deported, ...

Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Pub.L. No. 99-603, § 302(a), 55 U.S. L.W. 275, 294 (1986).

The INS has interpreted this section to apply only to aliens whose last entry into the United States was before November 6, 1986, including "such alien who has departed and returned to the United States since November 6, 1986 under a grant of advance parole from the INS." INS Legalization Wire No. 12, January 20, 1987; see also INS Implementation Wire No. 1, November 14, 1986, at 5.5 Plaintiffs challenge this construction as contrary to the plain language of the statute, and contend that the stay of exclusion provision of section 210(d)(1)(A) applies to all aliens apprehended prior to June 1, 19876 who can establish a nonfrivolous claim for adjustment of status as a SAW, regardless of the date of attempted reentry into the United States.7

It is important at the outset to understand what is at stake when an administrative agency's interpretation of a statute is challenged. At issue in such cases is a question of statutory construction; that is to say, the intent of Congress is determinative and not the agency's construction of the language.8 Thus, when as in the instant case, a court is confronted with a challenge to an administrative agency's construction of a statute it is charged with administering, two questions are presented. First, the court must decide whether Congress has "`spoken to the precise question at issue, for if the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress.'" INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, ___ U.S. ___, ___ n. 29, 107 S.Ct. 1207, 1220 n. 29, 94 L.Ed.2d 434 (1987) (quoting Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837, 842-45, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781-83, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984)). Put another way, if Congressional intent is clear from the plain words of the statute, the application of other means of construction (e.g., examination of legislative history or deference to an agency's interpretation) is ordinarily unnecessary and thus unwarranted. See e.g., Church of Scientology of California v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, 612 F.2d 417, 421 (9th Cir.1979) ("If the language of a statute is clear and there is no ambiguity, then there is no need to `interpret' the language by resorting to the legislative history or other extrinsic aids.").9 If Congressional intent cannot be clearly ascertained, the second question for the court "`is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute.'" INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, ___ U.S. ___ - ___ n. 29, 107 S.Ct. at 1220 n. 29 (1987) (quoting Chevron, 467 U.S. at 842-45, 104 S.Ct. at 2781-83).

It appears to this court that the Supreme Court has begun to refine the process of ascertaining Congressional intent and to evolve a kind of hierarchy of canons of statutory construction. As I explain below, under this evolving doctrine, analysis commences with application of the plain meaning rule, followed by examination of the legislative history. If an ambiguity remains after application of these two primary means of construction, then a court may resort to other textual means of construction, ending with resort to extrinsic aids. In no event, however, may canons of construction extrinsic to the text be employed to create an ambiguity which is not inherent in the language employed by Congress, or at least resulting from examination of the legislative history. See e.g., Albernaz v. United States, 450 U.S. 333, 343, 101 S.Ct. 1137, 1144, 67 L.Ed.2d 275 (1981) (principle of lenity serves only as an aid for resolving ambiguity; it is not used to beget one). This principle is of real significance in cases where an agency's construction of a statute is being challenged because, as I explain below, deference to the agency's construction is a form of extrinsic statutory construction and is thus significant only if ambiguity exists as a result of textual examination.

To recapitulate, where an agency's statutory construction is challenged, the court...

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