Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/483

 502us2$24h 01-22-99 08:25:35 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 314 (1992)

325

Opinion of Rehnquist, C. J.

the Attorney General shall direct the alien be deported to the country designated by the alien “if that country is willing to accept him into its territory, unless the Attorney General, in his discretion, concludes that deportation to such country would be prejudicial to the interests of the United States.” In addition, in this case, the INS had objected to respondent’s designation at the very hearing at which his selection of Ireland as the country of deportation was made.8 The Attorney General also concluded that his rejection of the designated country was not a “fact,” reasoning that “[t]he ultimate decision in an administrative process cannot itself constitute ‘new’ evidence to justify reopening. If an adverse decision were sufficient, there could never be finality in the process.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 67a. He therefore concluded that the Government’s successful opposition to respondent’s designation was neither “new” nor “evidence.” The Attorney General also decided that Ireland’s implementation of its 1987 Extradition Act was neither relevant nor new. By the time he issued his denial of the motion to reopen, the question was whether respondent should be deported to the United Kingdom. And the treaty upon which the Irish Extradition Act was based had been signed six months before respondent withdrew his asylum and withholding of deportation claims in 1986. He also noted that a change in law ordinarily does not support a motion to reopen unless the change pertains to the rules of the proceeding at which deportation was ordered. The Court of Appeals took the view that the Attorney General’s insistence that the grounds adduced for reopening have been “unforeseeable” was supported by “[n]either the regulations nor the applicable decisional law.” 908 F. 2d, at 8 At the deportation hearing, counsel for the INS stated that the INS “oppose[d] the designation of the Republic of Ireland on the ground that the respondent’s deportation to the Republic of Ireland would be prejudicial to the interest of the United States” and designated the United Kingdom as “an alternate country of deportation.” App. 34.