Hovsepian

Among other issues, we must decide whether a federal district court may grant citizenship to resident aliens whose applications were rejected by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in part because of their past terrorist activities.

I

In November 1999, during the pendency of various civil and criminal proceedings arising out of challenges to earlier convictions, the district court naturalized Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian (the “applicants”) despite the fact that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (the “INS”) had previously denied their applications. To understand the context of such proceedings and the many collateral issues raised by these appeals, a detailed history is in order.

We begin in 1982, when the FBI discovered through intercepted phone conversations that the applicants were planning to blow up the offices of the Honorary Turkish Consul General in Philadelphia. At the time, the applicants were associated with the Justice Commandoes of the Armenian Genocide, a terrorist organization dedicated to exacting revenge against Turkey for atrocities committed against Armenians. The FBI learned that the applicants had arranged for a coconspirator…

dissenting:

The majority opinion does everything necessary to pave the way for the INS to deport Dr. Hovsepian and Mr. Yacoubian. I cannot join the opinion, though, for it casts doubt on the holdings of two of orn-eases. Also the majority has improperly applied our “abuse of discretion” standard of review. The majority does all this to facilitate the deportation of two men who, while convicted in their youth of serious crimes, have served their time and have since led exemplary lives in the United States for many years. From this, I must dissent.

A. Naturalization of Defendants

If Hovsepian and Yacoubian have been properly naturalized, then the sole motivation for the government’s appeal — to facilitate appellees’ deportation — vanishes. The majority, of course, finds that Hovse-pian and Yacoubian have not been properly naturalized, reasoning that the district court abused its discretion when it declined to remand their applications back to the INS. I find, however, that the majority’s conclusion doesn’t make sense when I look to the relevant statutory language and take our standard of review seriously. 8 U.S.C. § 1447 gives the INS 120 days from the date of the initial…