United States v. Vasquez Flores

362 F. Supp. 3d 349
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Virginia
DecidedJanuary 25, 2019
DocketCase No. 5:18-cr-00021
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 362 F. Supp. 3d 349 (United States v. Vasquez Flores) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Vasquez Flores, 362 F. Supp. 3d 349 (W.D. Va. 2019).

Opinion

Elizabeth K. Dillon, United States District Judge

Pending before the court is defendant Angel Orlando Vasquez Flores's motion to dismiss the indictment. (Dkt. No. 49.) Vasquez Flores, a citizen of Honduras, is charged in this case with a violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326, which requires the government to prove that he had previously been deported or removed from the United States. United States v. El Shami , 434 F.3d 659, 663 (4th Cir. 2005). He seeks to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the immigration court that ordered his deportation lacked subject-matter jurisdiction and thus that order was void ab initio. Specifically, he argues that the immigration court only obtains jurisdiction when a valid Notice to Appear (NTA) is issued and, relying on Pereira v. Sessions , --- U.S. ----, 138 S.Ct. 2105, 201 L.Ed.2d 433 (2018), he argues that his NTA was not valid to confer jurisdiction because it did not provide a specific date, time, and place for him to appear.

Defendant's motion raises a number of interrelated issues which, as counsel for both parties acknowledged at a hearing, have not been directly addressed by the Fourth Circuit and on which district courts have expressed differing views. For the reasons set forth herein, the court concludes that the NTA-standing alone-was insufficient to serve as a charging document. At the very least, the court will assume that is true for purposes of this opinion. Regardless, the court does not believe that the deficiency in the NTA resulted in a lack of subject-matter jurisdiction such that the order was void ab initio.

The court further concludes that, in order for Vasquez Flores to challenge the deficiency in the NTA as part of this criminal proceeding, he must satisfy the three requirements set forth in § 1326(d). The court finds, however, that he cannot satisfy the third requirement. For these reasons, discussed below, the court will deny the motion to dismiss the indictment.

I. BACKGROUND

Vasquez Flores is charged in a single-count indictment with illegal reentry after *351deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. The deportation referenced in the indictment occurred in 2011. Specifically, on November 1, 2011, Vasquez Flores, who then was being held at Middle River Regional Jail, was served with a warrant for arrest of an alien. On the same date, Vasquez Flores was transported to Harrisonburg, Virginia, and served with an NTA, but that NTA did not contain a set hearing date or place, which was, and is, a common occurrence. The record is silent as to whether he subsequently received a Notice of Hearing. He was then detained in the custody of Homeland Security and remained in that custody (in several different locations) until he appeared before an immigration court in York, Pennsylvania, on November 23, 2011, and was ordered removed.

Although the order signed by the immigration judge (IJ) has the word "Waived," indicating that Vasquez Flores waived his right to appeal (Dkt. No. 51-4), the audio recording of the proceedings does not reflect that his appeal rights were discussed or waived. Nonetheless, he did not appeal from the deportation order. He was removed from the United States on December 16, 2011, pursuant to a "Warrant of Removal/Deportation." Then, on August 8, 2018, he was found in the United States and subsequently indicted in this case.

The audio recording of Vasquez Flores's 2011 immigration proceeding is part of the record before this court. The recording lasts approximately eight minutes, and it contains the exchange between the IJ and Vasquez Flores, through his interpreter. Some portions of it are emphasized by the parties and worth noting. After Vasquez Flores confirmed that he was not legally present in the United States, the IJ asked him if he would voluntarily leave the United States if ordered to do so. Vasquez Flores said he would. The IJ told him that the fine was $ 5,000 and asked if anyone could pay that for him. He told the IJ that he had no money; it would have to be less. Then the IJ asked whether his girlfriend or anybody else would be willing to buy him an airline ticket to leave, and Vasquez Flores said no. Thereafter, the IJ ordered his deportation back to Honduras. The IJ then asked if he had any questions, and Vasquez Flores responded that he could pay a lower bail. The IJ told Vasquez Lopez he was not going to give a lower bail and now that the deportation order had been signed, "you don't have a bail at all." The IJ then concluded with "Good luck to you," and the recording ends.

For purposes of the motion before the court, there are two significant aspects of that recording. First, Vasquez Flores twice informed the IJ that he had some unknown amount of funds available to him. Vasquez Flores argues that this supports his assertion that the IJ should have allowed him to voluntarily depart, rather than being removed, and that if he had appealed the order of removal, he could have been given the opportunity to voluntarily depart. Critically, a voluntary departure does not qualify as a removal or deportation under 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Second, and as the United States concedes, the recording does not contain any discussion by the IJ concerning Vasquez Flores's rights to appeal from his deportation order, nor does it contain any statement by Vasquez Flores that he was waiving his appeal rights.1

*352II. DISCUSSION

A. Parties' Arguments

As noted, Vasquez Flores's primary argument, relying on Pereira , is that the NTA is invalid because it failed to specify a date and time for his hearing. From there, he argues that because the NTA is the charging document in an immigration case and it confers jurisdiction on the immigration court, an invalid NTA means that the immigration court never had subject-matter jurisdiction. He then relies on cases in other contexts in which courts held that any "ultra vires" orders from agencies or orders from a tribunal without subject-matter jurisdiction are void ab initio. Accordingly, he contends that this lack of subject-matter jurisdiction alone is enough to dismiss the indictment because, without any valid order of removal, he cannot be convicted under 8 U.S.C. § 1326

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
362 F. Supp. 3d 349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-vasquez-flores-vawd-2019.