Juana Zoraida Lopez-Telles v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

The petitioner is a citizen and native of Nicaragua. Shortly after the major earthquake there in 1973, she applied for and received a visa allowing her to visit the United States for a period of six months. In December, • 1975, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued an order to show cause directed to the petitioner and requiring a showing as to why she should not be deported for overstaying her visa. At the deportation hearings, she conceded deportability. She claimed, however, that since her home and possessions had been destroyed in the earthquake and her relatives killed, the immigration judge should terminate the proceedings for “humanitarian reasons.” The judge declined the request on the ground that he had no authority to grant it. He ordered that the petitioner be deported, and his decision was affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

Here, the sole claim is that the immigration judge’s holding that he had no statutory or “inherent” power to terminate deportation proceedings for “humanitarian reasons” was erroneous. We affirm.

Immigration judges, or special inquiry officers, are creatures of statute, receiving some of their powers and duties…