Immigration and Naturalization Service V. Doherty - The Court's Opinion

The Court's Opinion

When Attorney General Thornburgh denied Doherty's motion to reopen, he offered three separate grounds for doing so. First, Thornburgh concluded that Doherty did not present new evidence that warranted reopening. Second, he concluded that Doherty had waived his claims to asylum and withholding of deportation when he abandoned those claims during the original deportation proceedings. Third, he concluded that Doherty was ineligible for withholding of deportation and for asylum because he had committed "serious nonpolitical crimes" in Northern Ireland.

Motions to reopen are disfavored, particularly in deportation proceedings, because they can upset the finality of determinations made and simply work to the advantage of deportable aliens who wish nevertheless to remain in the United States. After Abudu, courts review denials of motions to reopen for abuse of discretion. A majority of the Court concluded that Thornburgh had not abused his discretion in denying Doherty's motion for any one of the three reasons he gave.