Cite as: 533 U. S. 289 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
Finally, the fact that § 212(c) relief is discretionary does not affect the propriety of our conclusion. There is a clear difference, for the purposes of retroactivity analysis, between facing possible deportation and facing certain deportation. Cf. Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States ex rel. Schumer, 520 U. S. 939, 949 (1997) (an increased likelihood of facing a qui tam action constitutes an impermissible retroactive effect for the defendant); Lindsey v. Washington, 301 U. S. 397, 401 (1937) ("Removal of the possibility of a sentence of less than fifteen years . . . operates to [defendants'] detriment" (emphasis added)). Prior to AEDPA and IIRIRA, aliens like St. Cyr had a significant likelihood of receiving § 212(c) relief.54 Because respondent, and other aliens like him, almost certainly relied upon that likelihood in deciding whether to forgo their right to a trial, the elimination of any possibility of § 212(c) relief by IIRIRA has an obvious and severe retroactive effect.55
we applied the Clayton Act's limitations on injunctive relief to cases pending at the time of the statute's passage. But unlike the elimination of § 212(c) relief in this case, which depends upon an alien's decision to plead guilty to an "aggravated felony," the deprivation of the District Court's power to grant injunctive relief at issue in Duplex Printing did not in any way result from or depend on the past action of the party seeking the injunction. Thus, it could not plausibly have been argued that the Clayton Act attached a " 'new disability, in respect to transactions or considerations already past.' " Landgraf, 511 U. S., at 269.
54 See n. 5, supra.
55 The INS cites several cases affirming Congress' power to retroactively unsettle such expectations in the immigration context. See Brief for Petitioner 40-41, and n. 21. But our recognition that Congress has the power to act retrospectively in the immigration context sheds no light on the question at issue at this stage of the Landgraf analysis: whether a particular statute in fact has such a retroactive effect. Moreover, our decision today is fully consistent with a recognition of Congress' power to act retrospectively. We simply assert, as we have consistently done in the past, that in legislating retroactively, Congress must make its intention plain.
Similarly, the fact that Congress has the power to alter the rights of resident aliens to remain in the United States is not determinative of the question whether a particular statute has a retroactive effect. See Chew Heong v. United States, 112 U. S. 536 (1884). Applying a statute barring
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