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INS v. DOHERTY Opinion of Scalia, J.
T. I. A. S. No. 6577 (1968).2 Before 1980, § 243(h) merely “authorized” the Attorney General to withhold deportation in the described circumstances, but did not require withholding in any case. 8 U. S. C. § 1253(h) (1976 ed., Supp. III). We presumed in Cardoza-Fonseca, supra, at 429, however, that after 1968, when the United States acceded to this provision of the Convention, the Attorney General “honored the dictates” of Article 33.1 in administering § 243(h). In 1980 Congress removed all doubt concerning the matter by substituting for the permissive language of § 243(h) the current mandatory provision, “basically conforming it to the language of Article 33 [of the Convention].” INS v. Stevic, 467 U. S. 407, 421 (1984). Because of the mandatory nature of the withholding-ofdeportation provision, the Attorney General’s power to deny withholding claims differs significantly from his broader authority to administer discretionary forms of relief such as asylum and suspension of deportation. Our decision in INS v. Abudu, 485 U. S. 94 (1988), reflects this. We there identified three independent grounds upon which the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) may deny a motion to reopen: “First, it may hold that the movant has not established a prima facie case for the underlying substantive relief sought. . . . Second, the BIA may hold that the movant has not introduced previously unavailable, material evidence, 8 CFR § 3.2 (1987), or, in an asylum application case, that the movant has not reasonably explained his 2
Article 33.1 provides: “No Contracting State shall expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” The United States was not a signatory to the 1954 Convention, but agreed to comply with certain provisions, including Article 33.1, in 1968, when it acceded to the United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Jan. 31, 1967, [1968] 19 U. S. T. 6223, 6225, T. I. A. S. No. 6577.
