Montes v. Attorney General

429 F. App'x 123
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedApril 19, 2011
DocketNo. 10-2561
StatusPublished

This text of 429 F. App'x 123 (Montes v. Attorney General) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Montes v. Attorney General, 429 F. App'x 123 (3d Cir. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

Roberth F. Montes is a native and citizen of Peru who entered the United States without a valid visa or entry document in 1992. On February 18, 1994, he married a United States citizen, Carmen Jeannette Carreras. He was granted conditional permanent resident status in 1995. The couple filed a Form 1-751 joint petition to remove the conditions on Montes’ permanent resident status in 1997. Carmen Carreras withdrew her petition at her first DHS interview, however, admitting in a sworn statement that the marriage was a fraud. Montes divorced Carreras in 2003 and applied for a waiver of the joint petition requirement under INA § 216(c)(4)(B) [8 U.S.C. § 1186a(c)(4)(B) ], which the US-CIS ultimately denied in 2006.

The DHS terminated Montes’ conditional permanent resident status and placed him in removal proceedings pursuant to Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) § 237(a)(1)(D)® [8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(D)® ] (based on his loss of permanent resident status) and INA § 237(a)(1)(A) [8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(A) ] (for procuring an immigration benefit by fraud or willful misrepresentation of a material fact). Montes conceded his removability due to the loss of permanent resident status, but he denied that his marriage was a sham. He renewed his [125]*125request for a waiver. In support of his request, Montes submitted his marriage certifícate, joint tax returns from 1994 through 2001, a joint bank account (opened in April 1994), a life insurance policy for his wife, an auto insurance policy that covered both of them as drivers, a health insurance card for him and his wife (through his employer), pictures of them together with her children, and receipts for various joint purchases. The Government submitted Carmen Carreras’s sworn statement and the investigator’s contemporaneous notes of the interview. The Immigration Judge (IJ) sustained both charges of removability and denied the waiver application, finding that the admission into evidence of Carreras’s sworn statement through the testimony of the investigator did not violate due process, and that Montes failed to meet his burden of showing that he entered into his marriage with Carreras in good faith.

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissed Montes’ appeal, holding that the IJ correctly denied a § 216(c)(4)(B) waiver.1 The BIA explained that Montes failed to establish that he and Carreras “intended to establish a life together at the time they were married” under 8 C.F.R. § 1216.5(e)(2). The Board determined that Carreras’s sworn statement to the investigator was “fundamentally fair” and comporting with due process. Montes filed a timely pro se petition for review.

In order to remove the conditional basis of the permanent resident status, an alien and his spouse must file a joint petition requesting removal of the conditional basis. 8 U.S.C. § 1186a(c)(l). If the alien fails to file a joint petition, the Attorney General may, as a matter of discretion, remove the conditional basis if the alien shows that the marriage was entered into in good faith but has been terminated. § 1186a(c)(4)(B). Absent any constitutional or legal challenge to the exercise of discretion, this Court lacks jurisdiction to review the discretionary denial of waivers under § 1186a(c)(4). Urena-Tavarez v. Ashcroft, 367 F.3d 154, 161 (3d Cir.2004). Thus, we may not address Montes’ argument that the IJ and the BIA improperly weighed the evidence. We retain jurisdiction, however, to review constitutional claims and questions of law. 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(D).

Montes argues that the IJ denied him due process by not requiring the Government to produce Carreras to testify to her sworn statement. Consequently, Montes argues, he was wrongly denied an opportunity to cross-examine her. He also asserts that his ex-wife’s statement is not trustworthy or reliable because it was not voluntary. We review due process claims under a de novo standard of review.2 Fadiga v. Att’y Gen., 488 F.3d 142, 154 (3d Cir.2007). Under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(4)(B), an alien shall have a reasonable opportunity to cross-examine witnesses presented by the Government. See Singh v. Gonzales, 432 F.3d 533, 541 (3d Cir.2006) (holding that an alien is entitled to a full and fair hearing of his claim and a reasonable opportunity to present evidence). As we explained in Ezeagwuna v. [126]*126Ashcroft, 325 F.3d 396 (3d Cir.2003), “[because the Federal Rules of Evidence do not apply in asylum proceedings, [t]he test for admissibility of evidence ... is whether the evidence is probative and whether its use is fundamentally fair so as not to deprive the alien of due process of law.’ ” Id. at 405 (quoting Bustos-Torres v. INS, 898 F.2d 1053, 1055 (5th Cir.1990)). “In the evidentiary context, fairness is closely related to the reliability and trustworthiness of the evidence.” Felzcerek v. INS, 75 F.3d 112, 115 (2d Cir.1996).

There is nothing in the record indicating that the Government made a showing that it tried to locate and bring Carreras in to testify, even though it had notice well before the hearing on June 3, 2008.3 Hernandez-Guadarrama v. Ashcroft, 394 F.3d 674, 681-82 (9th Cir.2005) (“the [DHS] may not use an affidavit from an absent witness unless the [DHS] first establishes that, despite reasonable efforts, it was unable to secure the presence of the witness at the hearing1 ”) (quoting Olabanji v. INS, 973 F.2d 1232, 1234 (5th Cir.1992)); see Ocasio v. Ashcroft, 375 F.3d 105, 107 (1st Cir.2004) (same). Instead, the Government sought to admit Carreras’s hearsay statement through the testimony of the investigator who took the interview. The investigator testified to her general practice of telling the interviewee that the sworn statement must be made voluntarily.

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Bluebook (online)
429 F. App'x 123, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/montes-v-attorney-general-ca3-2011.