Moises Ponce-Gonzalez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

775 F.2d 1342, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 23748
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedNovember 8, 1985
Docket84-4403
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 775 F.2d 1342 (Moises Ponce-Gonzalez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moises Ponce-Gonzalez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 775 F.2d 1342, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 23748 (5th Cir. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from an order of deportation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”). Petitioner sought to avoid deportation by collaterally attacking a prior deportation order, seeking thereby reinstatement of the status he allegedly held and was entitled to prior to that earlier finding of deportability for having fraudulently obtained immediate relative immigrant status. We affirm.

Facts and Proceedings Below

Petitioner Moisés Ponce-Gonzalez is a thirty-six-year-old native and citizen of Mexico. He entered this country on September 10, 1971, as an immediate relative immigrant, based upon his marriage, on August 3, 1970, to Amelia Flores (“Amelia”), a United States citizen. On December 31, 1972, he was married in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila, Mexico to Bertha Cal-villo De Anda (“Bertha”), a citizen of Mexico admitted to this country in 1960 as a permanent resident alien. Their first child, Laura, was born in San Antonio, Texas on January 15, 1974.

On July 25, 1974, petitioner was ordered by the INS to show cause why he should not be found deportable on the basis of an Order to Show Cause charging that he had entered the United States illegally and was an alien who was excludable at the time of entry for having made fraudulent material misrepresentations respecting his immediate relative status. 1 At petitioner’s request, a hearing before an Immigration Judge was held the next day. Petitioner admitted all the factual allegations in the show cause order 2 and conceded deporta- *1344 bility. Petitioner waived appeal. He requested and was granted voluntary departure. He departed this country to Mexico on July 31, 1974.

Petitioner’s first marriage (to Amelia) was annulled on September 23, 1975 by the state district court in Bexar County, Texas. The annulment proceedings were instituted by Amelia, and petitioner, having waived citation, did not appear. Petitioner thereafter, on December 28, 1976, in Mexico, remarried Bertha, who is presently his spouse. Bertha visited him occasionally in Mexico after his departure. They have two more children, also born in this country, Julia Iseia, born June 12, 1975, and Moisés, Jr., born August 13, 1977.

Petitioner remained in Mexico from July 31, 1974 until July 15, 1979, when he re-entered this country as a nonimmigrant for pleasure, authorized to remain until September 30, 1979. 3 On October 2, 1979, an Order to Show Cause was issued, alleging petitioner’s deportability for having overstayed his visitor’s visa. See 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(2) (§ 241(a)(2) of the Act). At his subsequent deportation hearing, petitioner admitted the facts in this second order and conceded deportability, subject to his “Motion to Terminate” the deportation proceedings. In that motion, petitioner asserted that the 1974 deportation order was improper because he was allegedly then eligible for relief from deportation by virtue of the provisions of section 241(f) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1251(f), the “forgiveness” section. 4 Petitioner thus sought to avoid the 1979 order of deportation by collaterally attacking the 1974 order of deportation.

The Immigration Judge found that petitioner, who had been represented by counsel in the 1974 proceeding, had not there raised the question of his eligibility for section 241(f) relief, and that petitioner might not now successfully assert the failure of the INS at the prior hearing to sua sponte grant that relief. The Immigration Judge also specifically found that, at the time of petitioner’s entry into this country in 1971, he was not in possession of a valid labor certificate as required by section 212(a)(14) of the Act. 5 The hearing judge *1345 further found that petitioner’s assertion that the INS was estopped from deporting him because of “affirmative misconduct”— its failure to investigate his familial status as allegedly required by its Operations Instructions 6 — was without merit. The Immigration Judge determined that petitioner’s current (1979) deportability was supported by “evidence that is clear, convincing and unequivocal.” See Woodby v. INS, 385 U.S. 276, 87 S.Ct. 483, 484, 488, 17 L.Ed.2d 362 (1966); cf. 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4); 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a)(5). The judge granted voluntary departure, to be accomplished by July 8, 1980, and ordered petitioner deported should he not so depart.

Petitioner timely appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), challenging the Immigration Judge’s rejection of the collateral attack upon the 1974 order of deportation and his determination that the INS was not estopped from deporting petitioner in 1979 by virtue of its alleged affirmative misconduct. The BIA rejected petitioner’s collateral attack on the 1974 deportation order, because, in part, his attack did not address the finding of deporta-bility, but instead dealt with the question of whether relief from deportation had been properly withheld. It found that petitioner had admitted the facts supporting a finding of deportability in 1974, had waived appeal, and had voluntarily departed the country; and that he had not asserted at that time his eligibility for section 241(f) relief, nor borne his burden to prove facts relevant to establishing that eligibility. The BIA concluded, therefore, that no miscarriage of justice had resulted which would have justified collateral attack on the 1974 order; that petitioner’s failure to assert his eligibility for section 241(f) relief from deportation, and an absence of any evidence of such eligibility in the 1974 hearing record, precluded a finding that such relief had been wrongly withheld; and that the 1979 charge of overstay had been established by clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence. The decision of the Immigration Judge was affirmed, and petitioner’s administrative appeal was dismissed on February 23, 1984. Petitioner was granted thirty days’ voluntary departure, and was ordered deported unless he so departed.

Petitioner timely filed a petition for review with this Court.

Prior Determination of Deportability

“An order of deportation ... shall not be reviewed by any court if the alien has not exhausted the administrative remedies available to him as of right ... or if he has departed from the United States after the issuance of the order.” 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(c) *1346 (emphasis added).

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Bluebook (online)
775 F.2d 1342, 1985 U.S. App. LEXIS 23748, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moises-ponce-gonzalez-v-immigration-and-naturalization-service-ca5-1985.