United States v. Oscar Leonardo Hernandez

693 F.2d 996, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 23914, 11 Fed. R. Serv. 1780
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedNovember 22, 1982
Docket82-1213
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 693 F.2d 996 (United States v. Oscar Leonardo Hernandez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Oscar Leonardo Hernandez, 693 F.2d 996, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 23914, 11 Fed. R. Serv. 1780 (10th Cir. 1982).

Opinion

BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Hernandez, an alien, was found in the United States after four previous arrests and deportations and charged by indictment with violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. A jury found him guilty. He appeals from the judgment imposing sentence. We affirm.

A native of Honduras, defendant was deported from the United States on four occasions: April 12,1978, July 12,1979, May 13, 1980, and June 6, 1981. He was found in Salt Lake City¡ Utah, on November' 25, 1981, taken into custody, and indicted. With exceptions not here pertinent, § 1326 provides that: “any alien who has been arrested and deported . . . and thereafter enters, attempts to enter, or is at any time found in, the United States . . . shall be guilty of a felony.” •

We note that the record does not contain a complete trial transcript. See Reporter’s certificates at Tr. p. 63 and Supp. Volume I, p. 4. As is usually the case, difficulties arise when we are not provided a complete trial transcript.

Counsel for the government and the defendant stipulated that the defendant was deported on the four occasions above mentioned. Defendant argues that the statute requires both arrest and deportation and that the record does not show any previous arrest. The elements of a § 1326 violation are (1) an alien, (2) who has been arrested, and (3) deported, and (4) thereafter is found in the United States, (5) without the Attorney General’s consent for readmission. We agree that arrest is essential to conviction.

The applicable regulations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS, provide for a final order of deportation, 8 C.F.R. § 243.1, and the issuance of a warrant based onsuch order. Id. § 243.2. By stipulation the warrants issued in connection with the four mentioned deportations were received in evidence. Government Exhibits 4, 8, 9, and 10. With the exception of the 1980 deportation, the signature of the defendant appears on the reverse side of each warrant. INS agent James testified that the defendant had been deported four times and that he, James, was the arresting officer on each occasion, Tr. p. 39.

The four exhibits each contain a letter to defendant on INS Form 1 — 294 in both English and Spanish, telling him what he must do if he wishes to return to the United States and advising him that return without permission is a felony. The Warrant of Deportation is on INS Form 1-205. INS followed 8 C.F.R. § 243.1 and issued a Warrant of Deportation under § 243.2. As said in United States v. Wong Kim Bo, 5 Cir., 472 F.2d 720, 723:

“That is sufficient restraint on liberty to constitute an ‘arrest,’ even without custodial manhandling and physical restraint...."

See also United States v. Farias-Arroyo, 9 Cir., 528 F.2d 904, 905.

Defendant argues that the four deportations were unlawful because he was not advised of his right of asylum. The government says that the validity of the *999 prior deportations may not be collaterally attacked in these criminal proceedings. Section 1158, 8 U.S.C., provides for the Attorney General to establish procedures for the grant of asylum to a refugee. Section 1101(a)(42)(A) defines “refugee” as one who has a well-founded fear of persecution.

Nothing in the record shows that defendant- ever claimed the right to asylum. Statements to the contrary in his brief are supported only by references to his motion for release pending appeal and his counsel’s memorandum in support of that motion. See R. Vol. I, pp. 74-78. The memorandum says that defendant has “walked and hitchhiked from Central America to Salt Lake City on five different occasions, even though he was forbidden to do so by federal authorities;” that citizens in the Salt Lake community have “expressed support for this defendant and have offered to give him shelter and support;” and that a newspaper editorial says that defendant has earned “the right to stay regardless of the statutes and Immigration and Naturalization Service policy.”

Nothing in the record shows that defendant ever asserted to an INS agent or official a request for asylum. Defendant did not testify at the trial. In the trial court proceedings defendant did not attack the validity of any of his four prior deportations. The most that is shown is his desire to live in the United States. We recognize that the circuits are split on whether and how collateral attack on prior deportations may be made in § 1326 criminal proceedings. See e.g., United States v. Calderon-Medina, 9 Cir., 591 F.2d 529; and United States v. Rosal-Aguilar, 7 Cir., 652 F.2d 721 (permitting collateral attack on the facts presented); and United States v. De La Cruz-Sepulveda, 5 Cir., 656 F.2d 1129, and United States v. Cabrera-Quintero, 8 Cir., 650 F.2d 942 (contra).

In a case presenting a different factual situation, Arriaga-Ramirez v. United States, 10 Cir., 325 F.2d 857, 859, we said that a deportation cannot be collaterally attacked in a § 1326 proceeding. In United States v. Spector, 343 U.S. 169, 172-173, 72 S.Ct. 591, 593-94, 96 L.Ed. 863, the Court declined to decide whether the validity of a deportation order may be tried in a criminal proceeding. In Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 55, 67, 100 S.Ct. 915, 921-22, 63 L.Ed.2d 198, the Court held that the invalidity of a prior felony conviction is not a defense to a charge of violation of 18 U.S.C. App. § 1202(a)(1).

The collateral attack issue was not raised in the trial court and cannot be considered in the court of appeals, Christiansen v. Farmers Ins. Exchange, 10 Cir., 540 F.2d 472, 477. We have applied that principle in two deportation cases. Skelly v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 10 Cir., 630 F.2d 1375, 1382, and Burquez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 10 Cir., 513 F.2d 751, 754.

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Bluebook (online)
693 F.2d 996, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 23914, 11 Fed. R. Serv. 1780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-oscar-leonardo-hernandez-ca10-1982.