United States v. Rangel-Rodriguez

367 F. Supp. 3d 836
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedFebruary 12, 2019
DocketCase No. 18 CR 581
StatusPublished

This text of 367 F. Supp. 3d 836 (United States v. Rangel-Rodriguez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Rangel-Rodriguez, 367 F. Supp. 3d 836 (illinoised 2019).

Opinion

MATTHEW F. KENNELLY, District Judge:

*839Ismael Rangel-Rodriguez,1 a native of Mexico, was indicted on September 12, 2018 under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) for allegedly reentering the United States after he was previously found to be in the country illegally. Rangel has moved to dismiss the indictment on the basis that the underlying removal was legally defective under the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Pereira v. Sessions , --- U.S. ----, 138 S.Ct. 2105, 201 L.Ed.2d 433 (2018). He argues that, because of the defect, his prior removal cannot, as a matter of law, serve as an element of the present charge. After reviewing the record and controlling authority, the Court concludes that the motion must be denied.

Background

On November 26, 2010, Rangel was arrested for driving on a suspended license and other offenses. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiated removal proceedings by serving the defendant with a notice to appear (NTA) the same day. The NTA directed Rangel to appear before an immigration judge on a date and time "to be set."

The parties appear to agree that ICE subsequently issued three hearing notices that specified the times, dates, and locations of proceedings that occurred in the following months, though there is some disagreement about whether each was properly served on Rangel. The parties also agree that Rangel appeared by video conference at three hearings in February and March 2011. After the third hearing, which occurred on March 15, 2011, Rangel was released on bond. The parties disagree about whether Rangel was notified of his next court date at the time of his release, and neither side has obtained a transcript of the hearing.

The record says little about what happened in the year following Rangel's bond.2 And neither party has produced records of any hearings that may have occurred during the remainder of 2011, though Rangel offers the observation that ICE's internal record system suggests no such hearings occurred.3

The next relevant proceeding included in the record was a hearing in February 2012. Specifically, on February 22, 2012, eleven months after Rangel was released on bond, the immigration court conducted a removal hearing and ordered him removed from the United States. But Rangel was not present at the removal hearing because he had been arrested on a DUI charge in late January and was in state custody pending trial. In short, he was ordered removed in absentia. Rangel was then convicted of DUI in August 2012 and served another year in state custody before he was released to ICE custody in September 2013. ICE caused him to be physically removed from the United States on September 24, 2013.

*840Two days after his removal, Rangel was again apprehended in the United States. ICE reinstated the removal order and immediately removed him to Mexico.

At some point between then and August 2018, Rangel again reentered the United States. He was arrested by Chicago police on August 13, 2018. A grand jury then indicted him on a charge of illegal reentry under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a).

Discussion

In relevant part, section 1326(a) makes it a crime when "any alien who ... has been deported[ ] or removed ... thereafter ... enters, or attempts to enter, or is at any time found in, the United States...." Id. Rangel has moved to dismiss the indictment on the basis that his initial removal was defective under Pereira , 138 S.Ct. at 2105. In Pereira , the Supreme Court held, in an arguably analogous context, that the NTA statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a), requires date and time information be provided to a respondent in order for that document to have effect. Rangel alleges that the government's failure to include time and date information in the 2010 NTA rendered it legally ineffective and that as a result, his removal following issuance of that NTA cannot, as a matter of law, serve as a basis for this indictment. The government contends that Pereira is readily distinguishable and ought not to apply here. Alternatively, it contends that 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d) sets out specific statutory requirements for collaterally attacking the removal order underlying an indictment like this one and that Rangel has failed to satisfy those requirements. The Court addresses each of these arguments in turn.

A. Pereira 's applicability

At the threshold, the parties dispute whether Pereira is applicable here at all.

1. The Supreme Court's holding in Pereira

Pereira involved a challenge to a removal order under the "stop-time" rule from 8 U.S.C. § 1229b. See Pereira , 138 S.Ct. at 2110. Section 1229b(b)(1)(A) provides relief from deportation for noncitizens who have "been physically present in the United States for a continuous period of not less than 10 years immediately preceding the date of [an] application" for cancellation of removal. 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(A). The stop-time rule is a carve-out that stops a noncitizen from accruing time toward eligibility for cancellation of removal "when the alien is served a notice to appear under section 1229(a) of this title." Id. § 1229b(d)(1).

Section 1229(a), entitled "Notice to appear," sets out the requirements for the written notice that "shall be given ... to the alien" who is subject to removal proceedings. Id. § 1229(a).

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367 F. Supp. 3d 836, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-rangel-rodriguez-illinoised-2019.