330
Stevens, J., dissenting
Agency stated that "concern for the welfare of the juvenile will not permit release to just any adult." Ibid. (emphasis added).17 There is no mention, however, of the obvious distinction between "just any adult" and the broad spectrum of responsible parties that can assume care of these children, such as extended family members, godparents, friends, and private charitable organizations. Fourth, "the Service has neither the expertise nor the resources to conduct home studies for placement of each juvenile released." Ibid. Again, however, there is no explanation of why any more elaborate or expensive "home study" would be necessary to evaluate the qualifications of apparently responsible persons than had been conducted in the past. There is a strange irony in both the fact that the INS suddenly decided that temporary releases that had been made routinely to responsible persons in the past now must be preceded by a "home study," and the fact that the scarcity of its "resources" provides the explanation for spending far more money on detention than would be necessary to perform its newly discovered home study obligation.18
ously tell us nothing about the "dramatic increase" mentioned by the INS. 53 Fed. Reg. 17449 (1988). Indeed, the study cited by the Government also has nothing to say about any increase in the number of encounters with juvenile aliens. In all events, the fact that both the Government and this Court deem it appropriate to rely on a post hoc, nonrecord exposition of the dimensions of the problem that supposedly led to a dramatic change in INS policy merely highlights the casual character of the Agency's deliberative process. One can only speculate about whether the "dramatic increase in the number of juvenile aliens it encounters," ibid., or the District Court's injunction was the more important cause of the new rule.
17 This statement may be the source of the Court's similar comment that "the INS cannot simply send them off into the night on bond or recognizance." Ante, at 295. There is, of course, no evidence that the INS had ever followed such an irresponsible practice, or that there was any danger that it would do so in the future.
18 The record indicates that the cost of detention may amount to as much as $100 per day per juvenile. Deposition of Robert J. Schmidt, Immigration and Naturalization Service (July 31, 1986), p. 76. Even the sort of
Page: Index Previous 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007