DeGurules v. I.N.S.
Citation | 833 F.2d 861 |
Decision Date | 20 February 1987 |
Docket Number | Nos. 86-7353,86-7106,HERNANDEZ-LEGUIZAMO and L,s. 86-7353 |
Parties | Yolanda Camacho DeGURULES, Petitioner, v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent. Luisucila Salgado De Hernandez, Petitioners, v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent. |
Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit) |
Manuel J. Monquia, Escondido, Cal., for petitioner Hernandez-Leguizamo.
Jan Joseph Bejar, San Diego, Cal., for petitioner DeGurules.
Richard K. Willard, Asst. Atty. Gen., James A. Hunolt, and Donald A. Couvillon, Washington, D.C., for the respondent.
Petitions for Review of Orders of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Before KILKENNY, SNEED and O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judges.
These two cases have been consolidated on appeal because they raise an identical issue, viz., the retroactivity vel non of a recent amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. Secs. 1101 et seq. We review de novo, see Sea-Land Serv., Inc. v. Murrey & Son's Co., 824 F.2d 740, 742 (CA9 1987) ( ), and we remand.
Each of the petitioners in these consolidated appeals faces deportation for failure to meet the statutory seven-year physical presence requirement of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1254(a)(1). 1 At the time the Immigration Judges ("IJ's") and the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") rendered their decisions in these cases, they were guided by the Supreme Court's recent holding in I.N.S. v. Phinpathya, 464 U.S. 183, 104 S.Ct. 584, 78 L.Ed.2d 401 (1984). In that case, the Supreme Court interpreted section 1254(a)(1) as requiring a strictly continuous physical presence, without interruption, for seven years in order for an alien to qualify for permanent resident status. 464 U.S. at 193-94, 104 S.Ct. at 591.
In 1986, Congress effectively nullified the Supreme Court's interpretation of section 1254(a)(1) by way of an amendment contained in the Immigration Reform and Control Act ("the Act"), Pub.L. No. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359 (1986). Section 315(b) of the Act reads as follows:
"An alien shall not be considered to have failed to maintain continuous physical presence in the United States ... if the absence from the United States was brief, casual, and innocent and did not meaningfully interrupt the continuous physical presence."
The legislative history behind this language makes clear that Congress intended to abrogate the strictness of the holding in Phinpathya:
H.R.Rep. No. 3810, 99th Cong., 2nd Sess. at 78, reprinted in 1986 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News 5649, 5682.
Because the above legislation was enacted subsequent to the decisions rendered by the IJ's and the BIA in the instant appeals, and none of the parties has raised the issue on appeal, we are confronted with a question of first impression, viz., whether sua sponte we may apply retroactively the above amendment to these pending cases.
Ordinarily, this court will not address issues not properly raised by the parties. See Oakland Tribune, Inc. v. Chronicle Pub. Co., 762 F.2d 1374, 1376 (CA9 1985) ( ). On the other hand, a fundamental principle of our jurisprudence is that a court will apply the law as it exists when rendering its decision. Bradley v. Richmond Sch. Bd., 416 U.S. 696, 711, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 2016, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974). In the absence of a legislative pronouncement or history to the contrary, this principle applies even when a change to existing law occurs during the pendency of an appeal. Id. at 715-16; City of Great Falls v. United States, 673 F.2d 1065, 1068 (CA9 1982) (per curiam) ( ).
An exception to this rule is that a new law will not be applied retroactively if such will result in manifest injustice. Campbell v. United States, 809 F.2d 563, 575 (CA9 1987). Whether a retroactive application will cause manifest injustice is in turn determined by an assessment of three factors: (1) the nature and identity of the parties; (2) the nature of their rights; and (3) the nature of the impact of the change in law upon those rights. Id. (citing and quoting Bradley, 416 U.S. at 717, 94 S.Ct. at 2019).
5 U.S. (1 Cranch) at 110 (quoted in Bradley, 416 U.S. at 712, 94 S.Ct. at 2016). Accordingly, an assessment of the nature and identity of the parties points in favor of the retroactive application of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1254(b)(3).
The second of the three criteria set out in Bradley holds that an intervening change to existing law should not be applied to a pending action where "to do so would infringe upon or deprive a person of a right that had matured or become unconditional." Bradley, 416 U.S. at 720, 94 S.Ct. at 2020. Since "the case before us does not concern antecedent rights vesting prior to the enactment date[,]" Campbell, 809 F.2d at 575, but instead involves a grant or expansion of an access to a remedy, it is obvious that the retroactive application of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1254(b)(3) here would neither infringe upon nor deprive anyone of a matured or unconditional right. We therefore conclude that the second factor under Bradley militates in favor of retroactivity.
Finally, we must determine whether a retroactive application of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1254(b)(3) would create "the possibility that new and unanticipated obligations [might] be imposed upon a party without notice or an opportunity to be heard." Bradley, 416 U.S. at 720, 94 S.Ct. at 2021. In making such an inquiry we must focus on "whether the new statutory obligation, if known, would have caused the [appellants] to alter [their] conduct." Campbell, 809 F.2d at 576 (...
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