The petitioner, Kazys Palciauskas, contests a deportation order issued by the United States Immigration Court and affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals.

The litigation against petitioner began in 1981, when the government filed a denaturalization action against petitioner under 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1451(a).1 After extensive litigation, the district court denaturalized petitioner, finding that petitioner had procured his citizenship illegally by concealment of a material fact and willful misrepresentation. United States v. Palciauskas, 559 F. Supp. 1294 (M.D.Fla.1983), aff'd, 734 F.2d 625 (11th Cir.1984). At several steps in the complex process culminating in petitioner's entry into the United States in 1949 and his subsequent naturalization as a United States citizen in 1954, petitioner concealed the fact that he had been the Mayor of Kaunas, Lithuania, from June 25, 1941 to May, 1942, instead asserting that he had been an "office clerk." Kaunas is a town in Lithuania that was controlled, occupied and temporarily established as the Lithuanian capital by the forces of Nazi Germany during a period which included petitioner's tenure as Mayor.

Although much of the government's denaturalization case against petitioner consisted of showing petitioner's role in the "ghettoization" and persecution of Jews while he was Mayor of Kaunas, and the district court detailed much of this evidence in its opinion, the district court stated that "[a]s it appears unnecessary to resolution of this proceeding, the Court makes no specific findings relative to possible active participation by [petitioner] in acts of persecution of Jews." Id., 559 F.Supp. at 1300. In affirming on appeal, this court stated specifically that the district court had not made specific findings regarding petitioner's participation in the persecution of Jews. United States v. Palciauskas, 734 F.2d 625, 626 (11th Cir.1984). We held that the only fact necessary to denaturalize petitioner under 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1451(a) was that petitioner had lied about his occupation during World War II. This lie constituted a material misrepresentation because the revelation of petitioner's actual position would, at the very least, have led to further investigation by various agencies. Id., 734 F.2d at 628.

Later in 1984, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service issued an order to show cause why petitioner should not be deported. The Order to Show Cause charged that Petitioner was deportable under 8 U.S.C. Secs. 1251(a)(1)(A), (a)(1)(B), and (a)(19).2 To support its motion for an order of deportation, the government relied, by application of collateral estoppel, on the facts litigated in the denaturalization proceedings. The immigration judge ordered petitioner deported to the Soviet Union, concluding that petitioner was precluded from relitigating the issue of the extent of his involvement in the persecution of Jews and whether he had materially misrepresented facts on the various documents required for entry and naturalization into the United States. Accordingly, the immigration judge found petitioner deportable under Secs. 1251(a)(1)(A), (a)(1)(B), and (a)(19).3 The Board of Immigration Appeals employed the same reasoning in affirming the deportation order. Petitioner now appeals to this court.

Petitioner asserts several issues on appeal. First, petitioner challenges the immigration courts' use of collateral estoppel. Second, petitioner argues that the immigration courts erred in finding him ineligible for discretionary relief from deportation. Third, petitioner contends that, even if he is excludable, the place of deportation should be Germany or Lithuania, rather than the Soviet Union.4

"The doctrine of collateral estoppel precludes a party from relitigating an issue that was fully litigated in a previous action." Deweese v. Town of Palm Beach, 688 F.2d 731, 733 (11th Cir.1982). The prerequisites for an application of collateral estoppel are: (1) that the issue at stake is identical to the one involved in the prior litigation; (2) that the issue was actually litigated in the prior litigation; and (3) that the determination of the issue in the prior litigation was a critical and necessary part of the judgment in that earlier action.5 Id. See also Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore, 439 U.S. 322, 326 n. 5, 99 S. Ct. 645, 649 n. 5, 58 L. Ed. 2d 552 (1979); Cromwell v. County of Sac, 95 U.S. 351, 353, 24 L. Ed. 681 (1877). "Even though an issue was fully raised and fully litigated in a prior action, and a finding on the issue was made by the court preliminarily to rendition of judgment, the issue is not concluded by the resulting judgment unless the finding made on the issue was ... necessary to the judgment." 1B J. Moore, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 0.443[5.-1], at 781 (2d ed. 1988).

With respect to any findings that petitioner participated in the persecution of Jews (as required for deportation under Sec. 1251(a)(19)), we conclude that any such findings were not necessary to the prior judgment and thus do not satisfy the third prerequisite for collateral estoppel. In the prior denaturalization proceedings, the district court did recite extensive facts surrounding petitioner's duties as mayor, many of which might support a finding that petitioner participated in the persecution of people because of their religion within the meaning of 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(19). See Palciauskas, 559 F. Supp. at 1296-98. However, the district court also expressly declined to make "specific findings relative to possible active participation by [petitioner] in acts of persecution of Jews." Id. at 1300. Regardless of whether the district court made some findings relating to possible participation in acts of persecution of Jews, the significant fact for this appeal is that any such findings were not necessary to the judgment (i.e., the third prong of the test) because the judgment of the district court clearly rested upon the sole fact that petitioner misrepresented the material fact that he was Mayor of Kaunas rather than an office clerk. 559 F. Supp. at 1300-01. Furthermore, this court on appeal, concluding that the only fact necessary to the denaturalization judgment was whether petitioner misrepresented the material fact about his occupation in connection with his application for entry into the United States. Palciauskas, 734 F.2d at 628.

Although it is true that, in order to find material misrepresentation, it was necessary to find that petitioner was Mayor of Kaunas rather than an office clerk,6 it was unnecessary to the judgment of denaturalization to find facts regarding petitioner's specific activities as mayor. This court stated that petitioner's contention that he was no more than a "powerless figurehead" or otherwise did not collaborate with the Nazi regime was irrelevant because

the fact remains that Palciauskas' service as Mayor was material to the various agencies that investigated him before he entered the United States. Testimony at trial showed that a more thorough check would have been made of Palciauskas had he revealed his mayoral position.

Palciauskas, 734 F.2d at 628. Of course, whether petitioner collaborated with Nazi persecutors is entirely relevant to the instant case, where an issue is whether petitioner is deportable under 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(19).

Furthermore, on appeal of the district court's denaturalization judgment, petitioner argued that he was denied a fair trial because the government obstructed his discovery efforts, that he was unable to conduct discovery in Lithuania due to the expense and futility of using the Soviet justice system, and that the district court erroneously failed to impose discovery sanctions against the government. Id. at 627. Petitioner also argued that it was error to admit depositions that were taken in the Soviet Union in the absence of his counsel, and that the district court erred by admitting "inherently unreliable" documents from Soviet archives. Id. This court did not reach any of these issues because the only fact necessary to support the judgment was that petitioner was mayor, which was apparently undisputed. Thus, some of petitioner's arguments in the prior denaturalization proceedings might have been meritorious, and the facts found in the prior action may have been derived from unreliable evidence or procedures.7 However, it was unnecessary for this court or the district court to explore these issues in the prior proceedings.8 Such a situation is one reason for the rule that only facts necessary to the judgment are given preclusive effect.

Therefore, the application of collateral estoppel to preclude relitigation of facts necessary to a finding that petitioner is deportable under 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(19) is inappropriate in this case.9 Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the Board of Immigration Appeals for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Petitioner contends that the immigration courts erred by designating the Soviet Union as the place of deportation. Although we remand for further proceedings as discussed above, we will address this issue to provide guidance for the proceedings on remand.

The designation of the country of deportation is governed by 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1253(a).10 Section 1253(a) establishes a three-level hierarchy of countries to which excludable aliens are to be deported. First, in most circumstances, the alien may promptly designate where he wants to go. This option is no longer available to petitioner because he refused to designate a country. Where the alien declines to make a proper designation, or if step one otherwise is not an available option, then the alien is deported to a country of which he is a subject, national, or citizen, if such country is willing to accept him into its territory. The immigration judge found that this option was also unavailable because petitioner is not a national or citizen of any country at the present time. Under step three of Sec. 1253(a), the attorney general has discretion to deport an alien to any of the classes of countries listed in Sec. 1253(a)(1) through (7), without any priority as to their order. The attorney general supported, and the immigration judge ordered, deportation to the Soviet Union pursuant to Sec. 1253(a)(4) because the place of petitioner's birth, Lithuania, is currently under Soviet control.

Petitioner argues that this court should take note of the democratic changes and secessionist movements currently sweeping through the Soviet Union, including Lithuania. Therefore, petitioner contends that this court should conclude that either Germany or Lithuania, which may soon regain its independence from the Soviet Union, is the proper place of deportation. However, although we are aware of recent events in the Soviet Union, this does not provide a basis for reversing the attorney general's discretionary decision. Moreover, any change in United States' foreign policy resulting from reform movements in the Soviet Union must be addressed by the executive branch, not the federal courts. See Flynn v. Shultz, 748 F.2d 1186, 1191 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 830, 106 S. Ct. 94, 88 L. Ed. 2d 77 (1985); Shyu Jeng Shyong v. Esperdy, 294 F. Supp. 355, 356 (S.D.N.Y.1969).

Under step three of Sec. 1253(a), the attorney general may exercise discretion to deport an alien to any of the specified classes of countries without regard to any priority. In the instant case, the attorney general supported, and the immigration judge ordered, deportation to the Soviet Union as the "country in which the place of birth is situated at the time [of deportation]," 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1253(a)(4), evidently not viewing such deportation as contrary to United States' foreign policy. Furthermore, the immigration judge might have designated the Soviet Union as the place of deportation in any event under 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1253(a)(7). See Linnas v. INS, 790 F.2d 1024, 1031 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 995, 107 S. Ct. 600, 93 L. Ed. 2d 600 (1986).11

Because the Board of Immigration Appeals improperly applied the doctrine of collateral estoppel, we reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

REVERSED and REMANDED.