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Opinion of the Court
tive date, "the amendments made by [Title III-A] shall not apply, and . . . the proceedings (including judicial review thereof) shall continue to be conducted without regard to such amendments." 41 This rule, however, does not communicate with unmistakable clarity Congress' intention to apply its repeal of § 212(c) retroactively. Nothing in either § 309(c)(1) or the statute's legislative history even discusses the effect of the statute on proceedings based on pre-IIRIRA convictions that are commenced after its effective date.42
Section 309(c)(1) is best read as merely setting out the procedural rules to be applied to removal proceedings pending on the effective date of the statute. Because "[c]hanges in procedural rules may often be applied in suits arising before their enactment without raising concerns about retroactivity," Landgraf, 511 U. S., at 275, it was necessary for Congress to identify which set of procedures would apply in those circumstances. As the Conference Report expressly explained, "[§ 309(c)] provides for the transition to new procedures in the case of an alien already in exclusion or deportation proceedings on the effective date." H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 104-828, p. 222 (1996) (emphasis added).
Another reason for declining to accept the INS' invitation to read § 309(c)(1) as dictating the temporal reach of IIRIRA § 304(b) is provided by Congress' willingness, in other sections of IIRIRA, to indicate unambiguously its intention
41 "(c) Transition for Aliens in Proceedings.— "(1) General rule that new rules do not apply.—Subject to the succeeding provisions of this subsection, in the case of an alien who is in exclusion or deportation proceedings as of the title III-A effective date—
"(A) the amendments made by this subtitle shall not apply, and "(B) the proceedings (including judicial review thereof) shall continue to be conducted without regard to such amendments." § 309, 110 Stat. 3009-625.
42 The INS' reliance, see Reply Brief for Petitioner 12, on INS v. Aguirre-Aguirre, 526 U. S. 415, 420 (1999), is beside the point because that decision simply observed that the new rules would not apply to a proceeding filed before IIRIRA's effective date.
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