Hugo Rangel Resendiz v. Leonard Kovensky, Acting Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service

416 F.3d 952, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 12699, 5 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5674
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 27, 2005
Docket03-55136
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 416 F.3d 952 (Hugo Rangel Resendiz v. Leonard Kovensky, Acting Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hugo Rangel Resendiz v. Leonard Kovensky, Acting Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service, 416 F.3d 952, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 12699, 5 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5674 (9th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

TROTT, Circuit Judge:

OVERVIEW

Hugo Rangel Resendiz appeals the district court’s dismissal of two petitions for habeas corpus — one under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, naming the State of California as the respondent, and a second under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 against the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”). 1 We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253.

We conclude that (1) Resendiz was not “in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court” when he filed his § 2254 petition, and he is not entitled to an exception from the in custody requirement; (2) the district court did not err in construing Resendiz’s § 2254 petition as a petition against the INS under § 2241 rather than as one for a writ of coram nobis; and (3) the enactments of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) do not change the long standing principle that a petitioner may not collaterally attack his state court conviction in a § 2241 petition against the INS. Accordingly, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

Resendiz was a lawful permanent resident when he pled guilty to narcotics offenses in the Orange County Superior Court on June 30, 1997. In re Resendiz, 25 Cal.4th 230, 235, 105 Cal.Rptr.2d 431, 19 P.3d 1171 (2001). Resendiz claims that before entering his plea, he expressed concern to his attorney, Leonard Basinger, about losing his green card as a result of the offense. Basinger inaccurately informed Resendiz that the guilty plea would not adversely affect his immigration status. The state court judge informed Re-sendiz and five other defendants that their convictions could result in deportation, but Resendiz nevertheless took Basinger’s erroneous advice and pled guilty. See id. at 235-37, 105 Cal.Rptr.2d 431, 19 P.3d 1171.

As a result of his plea, the state trial court sentenced Resendiz to 180 days imprisonment and three years probation, with credit for time served. In addition, *955 California Health and Safety Code section 11590 required Resendiz to register as a narcotics offender for a period of five years subsequent to the completion of his three year probation term.

While Resendiz was serving his state sentence, the INS served him with a Notice to Appear, which declared that he was a removable alien due to his conviction for a narcotics offense, which qualified as an aggravated felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)© and (a)(2)(A)(iii). Consequently, on a date not clear from the record, Resendiz was transferred to INS custody at the completion of his 180 days in state custody. Id. at 236, 105 Cal.Rptr.2d 431,19 P.3d 1171.

While in INS custody and represented by new counsel, Resendiz began pursuing state court relief on the grounds that Ba-singer provided ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment by telling Resendiz that his guilty plea would not affect his immigration status. Id. Resendiz’s state remedies remained unexhausted until April 2, 2001, when the California Supreme Court issued its decision. Id. The state court concluded that even assuming Basinger’s performance was constitutionally deficient, Resen-diz failed to show prejudice because he failed to show that he would have proceeded to trial absent the erroneous advice. Id. at 252-54, 105 Cal.Rptr.2d 431, 19 P.3d 1171. By the time the state court issued its final decision, Resendiz’s state sentence of 180 days and 3 years probation, imposed in 1997, had long since expired.

Nevertheless, Resendiz filed a § 2254 habeas petition in the district court in February of 2002, naming the State as respondent. The district court dismissed the petition because Resendiz was no longer “in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court.” Because Resendiz was in INS custody, however, the court construed the petition as a § 2241 petition and granted Resendiz leave to amend to allow him to name the Director of the INS as the proper respondent. Resendiz objected to the construction of his petition as a § 2241 petition, arguing that the State was the proper respondent. After objecting, Re-sendiz amended the petition, naming the INS as the respondent, but he continued to assert that the ineffective assistance of counsel during the state proceedings provided grounds for relief.

Sympathizing with Resendiz’s unfortunate procedural situation, the district court nonetheless concluded that it lacked jurisdiction over the § 2241 petition and reaffirmed its earlier decision to dismiss the § 2254 petition. The court determined that, pursuant to our decision in Contreras v. Schiltgen, 122 F.3d 30 (9th Cir.1997), aff'd on add’l grounds in Contreras v. Schiltgen, 151 F.3d 906 (9th Cir.1998) (Contreras II), the state conviction could not be collaterally attacked in a § 2241 petition against the INS, and that Resen-diz’s petition thus provided no grounds for relief. Moreover, the district court concluded that because Resendiz was no longer in custody pursuant to the state court judgment, it lacked jurisdiction over the § 2254 petition that otherwise would have been available to attack the state conviction. Thus, Resendiz was without federal review.

We granted a certificate of appealability on two issues: (1) whether Resendiz’s pending deportation on the grounds of his state conviction can be construed as “custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court,” and (2) whether the district court erred in construing Resendiz’s § 2254 petition as a proceeding against the INS under § 2241. Resendiz briefed additional, related issues here and requests that we broaden the certificate of appealability. We address each of his contentions in turn.

*956 DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

We review the district court’s dismissal of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus de novo. Hunt v. Pliler, 384 F.3d 1118, 1123 (9th Cir.2004).

B. Analysis

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416 F.3d 952, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 12699, 5 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hugo-rangel-resendiz-v-leonard-kovensky-acting-director-immigration-and-ca9-2005.