Cite as: 507 U. S. 292 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
facility, and continue searching for a relative or guardian, although release to others is possible in unusual cases.6
Respondents object that this scheme is motivated purely by "administrative convenience," a charge echoed by the dissent, see, e. g., post, at 320. This fails to grasp the distinction between administrative convenience (or, to speak less pejoratively, administrative efficiency) as the purpose of a policy—for example, a policy of not considering late-filed objections—and administrative efficiency as the reason for selecting one means of achieving a purpose over another. Only the latter is at issue here. The requisite statement of basis and purpose published by the INS upon promulgation of regulation 242.24 declares that the purpose of the rule is to protect "the welfare of the juvenile," 53 Fed. Reg. 17449 (1988), and there is no basis for calling that false. (Respondents' contention that the real purpose was to save money imputes not merely mendacity but irrationality, since respondents point out that detention in shelter-care facilities is more expensive than release.) Because the regulation involves no deprivation of a "fundamental" right, the Service was not compelled to ignore the costs and difficulty of alternative means of advancing its declared goal. Cf. Stanley v.
6 The dissent maintains that, in making custody decisions, the INS cannot rely on "[c]ategorical distinctions between cousins and uncles, or between relatives and godparents or other responsible persons," because "[d]ue process demands more, far more." Post, at 343. Acceptance of such a proposition would revolutionize much of our family law. Categorical distinctions between relatives and nonrelatives, and between relatives of varying degree of affinity, have always played a predominant role in determining child custody and in innumerable other aspects of domestic relations. The dissent asserts, however, that it would prohibit such distinctions only for the purpose of "prefer[ring] detention [by which it means institutional detention] to release," and accuses us of "mischaracteriz[ing] the issue" in suggesting otherwise. Post, at 343, n. 29. It seems to us that the dissent mischaracterizes the issue. The INS uses the categorical distinction between relatives and nonrelatives not to deny release, but to determine which potential custodians will be accepted without the safeguard of state-decreed guardianship.
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