United States v. Jermi Francisco Lopez

445 F.3d 90, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 8172, 2006 WL 853261
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 4, 2006
DocketDocket 03-1476-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 445 F.3d 90 (United States v. Jermi Francisco Lopez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Jermi Francisco Lopez, 445 F.3d 90, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 8172, 2006 WL 853261 (2d Cir. 2006).

Opinions

Judge RAGGI dissents in part in a separate opinion.

SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Jermi Francisco Lopez appeals from an August 5, 2003 judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Johnson, J.) convicting him, upon his conditional plea of guilty, of illegally reentering the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b)(2). We hold that erroneous statements by the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) informing Lopez that he was categorically ineligible for relief under former § 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c), deprived Lopez of judicial review within [92]*92the meaning of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d)(2). We vacate Lopez’s conviction and remand to the district court for determination of whether the erroneous information given by the government to Lopez on the availability of § 212(c) relief rendered Lopez’s deportation order fundamentally unfair within the meaning of § 1326(d)(3).

BACKGROUND

Lopez, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, first entered the United States in January 1986 at the age of nine as a lawful permanent resident. On October 6, 1994, Lopez was convicted in New York State Supreme Court of attempted robbery in the second degree. Upon entering a plea of guilty, he was sentenced to a term of two to six years’ imprisonment. On November 14, 1996, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”)1 issued Lopez an Order to Show Cause, charging him with deportability under INA § 241(a)(2)(A)(iii), 8 ■ U.S.C. § 1251 (a) (A)(iii).

Much of the subsequent history of this case hinges on significant revisions to the immigration laws that occurred during this time period. Prior to 1996, former § 212(c) of the INA vested the Attorney General with “broad discretion to cancel deportation orders for aliens who met certain residence requirements and had not served five years in prison for an aggravated felony.” United States v. Copeland, 376 F.3d 61, 64 (2d Cir.2004) (citing 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c) (repealed 1996)). The en- ' actment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996), and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (“IIRIRA”), Pub.L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009-546 (1996), extinguished the prospect of such relief for many categories of aliens. Section 440(d) of AEDPA eliminated § 212(c) waivers of deportation for those aliens deportable for having committed, inter alia, an aggravated felony or a controlled substance offense. Subsequently, § 304 of IIRIRA repealed § 212(c) and replaced it with a narrower provision called “cancellation of removal.”2 See United States v. Johnson, 391 F.3d 67, 70 (2d Cir.2004). Under the cancellation of removal provision, codified at INA § 240A(a), the Attorney General lacks discretion to cancel the removal of a lawful permanent resident who has, inter alia, been convicted of an aggravated felony. 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a).

On February 7, 1997, Lopez appeared at a deportation hearing before an IJ. Lopez requested and received an adjournment until March 10,1997, to obtain an attorney. On this date, he appeared before the IJ and requested and received a second adjournment to obtain an attorney, but was told that this adjournment would be the last one granted to him. On April 22, 1997, Lopez appeared pro se, admitted the allegations in the Order to Show Cause, and conceded deportability. The IJ informed Lopez that he was ineligible for any relief from deportation, including dis[93]*93cretionary relief under § 212(c) of the INA, and ordered Lopez deported to the Dominican Republic. The IJ also told Lopez of his right to appeal the ruling to the BIA.

Lopez appealed the IJ’s decision, arguing that § 440(d) of AEDPA could not be applied retroactively to him and that he should have been afforded § 212(c) relief. On October 31, 1997, the BIA dismissed Lopez’s appeal, applying § 440(d) of AED-PA to hold that Lopez’s criminal conviction made him “statutorily ineligible” for § 212(c) relief. The BIA relied on Matter of Soriano, 1996 WL 426888, 21 I. & N. Dec. 516 (1997), which held that AEDPA’s amendments to § 212(c) applied to proceedings pending when AEDPA became law and to those that commenced subsequent to AEDPA’s passage.3 Because Lopez’s deportation proceedings began prior to April 1997 and became administratively final after October 1996, IIRIRA’s transitional provisions governed Lopez’s appeal. See Henderson v. INS, 157 F.3d 106, 117 (2d Cir.1998). The relevant transitional provisions, codified in IIRIRA § 309, stated that “[t]here shall be no appeal permitted” of deportation orders based on the alien’s commission of an aggravated felony. 157 F.3d at 117. While Lopez was awaiting deportation, this Circuit held that habeas review under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 remained available under § 309’s transitional provisions. See Jean-Baptiste v. Reno, 144 F.3d 212, 219 (2d Cir.1998). Thus, once Lopez received a final order of removal, he could have sought judicial review of his deportation order through a habeas petition even though he could not have filed a petition for review. On June 28, 1999, the government deported Lopez to the Dominican Republic. On June 25, 2001, the Supreme Court decided in INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 121 S.Ct. 2271, 150 L.Ed.2d 347 (2001), that the provisions of IIRIRA and AEDPA repealing § 212(c) could not be applied retroactively to preclude § 212(c) relief for an alien who pled guilty to an aggravated felony prior to that section’s repeal.4 Id. at 326, 121 S.Ct. 2271. Accordingly, the analysis that led the IJ and the BIA to find Lopez statutorily ineligible for § 212(c) relief was legally incorrect because it erroneously applied IIRIRA and AEDPA retroactively to Lopez’s case.

On May 25, 2002, officers of the New York City Police Department arrested Lopez in Queens, New York for, among other things, criminal possession of marijuana. On June 18, 2002, the INS obtained a warrant to arrest Lopez. The complaint and affidavit in support of the arrest warrant alleged that Lopez had illegally reentered the United States after being deported on account of an aggravated felony conviction. On July 16, 2002, an indictment was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charging Lopez with illegal reentry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b)(2).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
445 F.3d 90, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 8172, 2006 WL 853261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jermi-francisco-lopez-ca2-2006.