High Court Makes It Easier for the INS to Deport Aliens : No Further Hearings for Calif. Doctor

The Supreme Court today made it easier for immigration officials to deport aliens who seek reconsideration of their claims to remain in the United States.

By a vote of 8 to 0, the justices barred further hearings for a California physician, Dr. Assibi L. Abudu, who said he might be tortured or killed if forced to return to his native Ghana.

Abudu asked the Board of Immigration Appeals for asylum in this country after it denied his initial bid to avoid deportation.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the court, said immigration officials, having decided an alien should be deported, generally are under no duty to reconsider the case when the alien says he has new evidence to support a bid for asylum.

Stevens said aliens seeking to reopen their deportation cases have the difficult task of proving that immigration officials abused their discretion in refusing reconsideration.

‘Did Not Abuse Discretion’

“There is a strong public interest in bringing litigation to a close as promptly as is consistent with the interest in giving the adversaries a fair opportunity to develop and present their respective cases,” Stevens said.

He continued, “We have no hesitation in concluding that the Board of Immigration Appeals did not abuse its discretion when it held that Abudu had not reasonably explained his failure to apply for asylum prior to the completion of the initial deportation proceeding.”

Abudu is a native and citizen of Ghana who graduated from USC Medical School and married a U.S. citizen.

Immigration officials moved to deport him in 1981 after he was convicted in California of illegally trying to obtain the drug Demerol by fraud. He was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation for three years.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service found him deportable, and the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld that decision.

Britain Might Bar Him

He faces deportation to Britain, according to court papers. But Abudu said he might be barred by that country and forced to return to Ghana.

Abudu asked immigration officials to reopen his case in 1985 and grant him asylum in the United States from the military dictatorship of Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings, who regained power in Ghana in a Dec. 31, 1981, military coup.

Abudu said he had new evidence that his life might be in danger if he was forced to return to Ghana.

The Board of Immigration Appeals refused to reopen Abudu’s case, noting that Abudu did not initially seek asylum when he contested his deportation.

But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1986 ordered the board to reconsider granting Abudu asylum.

Other Developments

The Supreme Court agreed with the Reagan Administration that the appeals court should have deferred to the immigration board.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who only recently joined the court, did not take part in the decision.

In other developments, the court:

--Declined to decide yet whether the state or the federal government should control a Gulf of Mexico area off Mississippi’s southwestern coastline. Rejecting arguments by the state’s lawyers, the court ruled 7 to 0 that more information is needed before such a determination is made.

--Heard arguments on the constitutionality of Texas’ death penalty law. A ruling is expected by July.