Source: https://casetext.com/case/cruz-garza-v-ashcroft?resultsNav=false
Timestamp: 2019-03-19 19:23:49
Document Index: 288960619

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1227', '§ 1227', '§ 1252', '§ 1227', '§ 1252', '§ 1227', '§ 1101', '§ 1101', '§ 1101', '§ 1101', '§ 16', '§ 1101', '§ 76', '§ 76', '§ 76', '§ 1101']

Cruz-Garza v. Ashcroft, 396 F.3d 1125 | Casetext
Cruz-Garza v. Ashcroft
396 F.3d 1125 (10th Cir. 2005)
Cruz-Garzav.Ashcroft
No. 04-9508.
Hakeem Ishola of Ishola Associates, P.C., Salt Lake City, UT, for Petitioner.
Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General, James A. Hunolt, Senior Litigation Counsel, and Song E. Park, Attorney, Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Respondents.
Petitioner Raul Cruz-Garza seeks review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) upholding a removal order issued by an Immigration Judge (IJ) under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) ("Any alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after admission is deportable."). He contends the BIA erroneously relied on his state felony conviction for attempted theft to invoke § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii), when that conviction had been reduced to (i.e., vacated and replaced by) a misdemeanor by the state trial court. This contention raises a cognizable challenge to the removal order, and we reverse.
After examining the briefs and administrative record, the panel has determined unanimously to grant the parties' request for a decision on the briefs without oral argument. See Fed.R.App.P. 34(f); 10th Cir. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.
As a general matter, judicial review of such removal orders is barred by 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(C), which abrogates our jurisdiction when the conditions for removal under § 1227(a)(2)(A) are met. However, it is now well-established that the language of § 1252(a)(2)(C) "requires that we determine whether [those] conditions exist before dismissing the appeal." Tapia Garcia v. INS, 237 F.3d 1216, 1220 (10th Cir. 2001). Thus, we retain jurisdiction to determine whether petitioner is (1) an alien (2) deportable (3) for conviction of an offense within § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). Id. at 1219. The instant petition for review challenges the third condition and, hence, the merits of the case coincide with the jurisdictional question. See Khalayleh v. INS, 287 F.3d 978, 979 (10th Cir. 2002).
In December 1997, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) initiated removal proceedings against petitioner based on the third-degree felony conviction. On January 15, 1998, petitioner filed a motion in the state trial court to vacate his conviction. The motion is not in our administrative record, but it is noted on the state court docket sheet that is included. Petitioner's immigration attorney (his attorney in the state criminal case as well) represented to the IJ that the motion asserted several substantive grounds for vacating the conviction, including involuntariness of the plea and ineffective assistance of counsel in connection with the plea proceeding. See R. at 72, 78-79, 84. The IJ accepted this representation as the word of an officer of the court. Id. at 83-84.
The INS ceased to exist on March 1, 2003, and its functions were assumed by agencies within the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. As most of the events in this case predate the reorganization, we refer to the INS.
Id.; see also id. at 98 (docket entry for order). Accordingly, the charge now designated on the cover of the state court docket sheet is "ATTEMPTED THEFT BY DECEPTION (amended) — Class B Misdemeanor," which is specified as disposed by "September 22, 1997 Guilty Plea." Id. at 95.
At one time, the BIA adhered to a broad rule that (excepting certain drug offenses) convictions that had been vacated or expunged could not be the basis for an alien's removal. Matter of Ozkok, 19 I. N. Dec. 546, 552, 1988 WL 235459 (BIA 1988) (reaffirming longstanding rule barring removal for conviction already vacated or expunged while permitting removal for some deferred convictions). See generally Lujan-Armendariz v. INS, 222 F.3d 728, 734-41 (9th Cir. 2000) (discussing Ozkok and historical treatment of vacated/expunged and deferred convictions). In the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), Pub.L. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009, Congress included a definition of "conviction," 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(48)(A), responding to some of the considerations addressed in Ozkok. Relying on this definition, the BIA partially changed its position on vacated or expunged convictions to allow removal of the convicted alien "notwithstanding a subsequent state action purporting to erase all evidence of the original determination of guilt through a rehabilitative procedure." In re Roldan-Santoyo, 22 I. N. Dec. 512, 523, 1999 WL 126433 (BIA 1999) (en banc), order vacated sub nom. on other grounds by Lujan-Armendariz, 222 F.3d 728.
The BIA's specific reference to expungement "through a rehabilitative procedure" signaled a deliberate qualification on its holding, which was "limited to those circumstances where an alien has been the beneficiary of a state rehabilitative statute which purports to erase the record of guilt." Id. at 523. The BIA specifically noted that it was not addressing "the situation where the alien has had his or her conviction vacated by a state court on direct appeal, wherein the court determines that vacation of the conviction is warranted on the merits, or on grounds relating to a violation of a fundamental statutory or constitutional right in the underlying criminal proceedings." Id. A year later, the BIA made it clear that a conviction vacated by a state court in a post-conviction proceeding "on the legal merits" could not support removal. In re Rodriguez-Ruiz, 22 I. N. Dec. 1378, 1379-80, 2000 WL 1375514 (BIA 2000). The operative distinction was further clarified in In re Pickering, 23 I. N. Dec. 621, 2003 WL 21358480 (June 2003), which likened vacaturs for immigration-related hardship to expungements for rehabilitative reasons, thereby framing a broad dichotomy of "vacat[urs] because of post-conviction events" that still allow removal versus "vacat[urs] on the basis of a procedural or substantive defect in the underlying proceedings" that do not. Id. at 624.
The one circuit to deviate from this trend did not do so to preserve the pre-IIRIRA rule generally barring removal for vacated convictions; rather, the Fifth Circuit took the opposite stance in Renteria-Gonzalez v. INS, 322 F.3d 804 (5th Cir. 2002), categorically allowing removal regardless of whether the predicate conviction had been vacated on grounds relating to the merits. See Discipio v. Ashcroft, 369 F.3d 472, 473 (5th Cir. 2004) (applying Renteria-Gonzalez to hold conviction vacated "because of procedural and substantive flaws in the underlying proceeding" still provided proper basis for removal). Significantly, the Discipio panel lamented the precedent to which it was bound, noting "[t]hat our Circuit is now out of step with the rest of the nation" as reflected in "the fact that the [BIA] applies the broad understanding of `conviction' embraced in Renteria-Gonzalez only in the Fifth Circuit." Id. at 474.
In sum, the treatment of vacated convictions is now fairly well-settled. Notwithstanding the Fifth Circuit's tenuous adherence to a categorical disregard of all vacaturs (and the Ninth Circuit's fleeting consideration of the other extreme), "the rest of the nation" has taken to the middle ground staked out by the BIA on the basis of the text and legislative history of § 1101(a)(48)(A) in Roldan-Santoyo, 22 I. N. Dec. at 522-23. We follow this consensus view, the rationale for which has been developed sufficiently, and repeated often enough by our sister circuits, that its recitation should not be necessary here.
As the above summary of the controlling law would suggest, the focus of petitioner's removal proceedings was on the reduction of his conviction from a qualifying "aggravated felony" to a misdemeanor. In the INS's view, the state court record demonstrated that the reduction was of a sort that did not preclude use of the superseded conviction under Roldan-Santoyo. The BIA agreed:
Congress has designated felony theft offenses to be aggravated felonies, see 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(G), and has further provided that convictions for attempt assume the qualifying status of the underlying offense, see id. § 1101(a)(43)(U). We note that the Supreme Court's recent enforcement of a rigorous mens rea requirement for "violent felonies" warranting removal pursuant 18 U.S.C. § 16 and 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(F), see Leocal v. Ashcroft, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 377, 160 L.Ed.2d 271 (2004), is not pertinent here.
Analysis — Roldan-Santoyo Inquiry and the Facts of Record
There is, however, another critical consideration, not acknowledged by the BIA, that weighs decisively against the agency's interpretation of the facts. The legal authority for the reduction of petitioner's conviction was Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-402. Because the conviction was reduced to a class B misdemeanor, the controlling subsections are § 76-3-402(1) (3), under which an offense may be reduced by two degrees if the court concludes that it is "unduly harsh" in light of "the nature and circumstances of the offense" and "the history and character of the defendant." Such offense and offender characteristics-traditional subjects of prejudgment sentencing proceedings-clearly focus on matters leading up to and encompassed within the judgment of conviction, not on post-conviction events relating to the subsequent success or failure of rehabilitation. Moreover, the statutory linkage of undue harshness to these offense and offender characteristics undercuts speculation that the description of petitioner's felony conviction as "unduly harsh" in the motion for reduction "suggests that the reduction, in the degree of [petitioner's] conviction, was motivated by the immigration hardships which resulted from the [petitioner's] conviction." R. at 3.
In contrast, another subsection of the statute, § 76-3-402(2)(b) (permitting reduction of third degree felony to Class A misdemeanor), deals specifically with probation compliance and does not involve any consideration of the offense and offender characteristics that govern the reduction of offense here.
Given the vagaries of the evidentiary record and, more importantly, the plain implication of the state statute authorizing reduction of petitioner's felony conviction to a Class B misdemeanor, we hold "that the INS did not prove by clear, unequivoval, and convincing evidence that [petitioner] was convicted of [a qualifying felony under §§ 1101(A)(43) and 1227(a)(2)(A).]" Sandoval, 240 F.3d at 583. "Thus we are compelled to grant the petition for review, because the weakness of the administrative record does not satisfy the stringent evidentiary standard for deportation." Cortez-Acosta, 234 F.3d at 483.
As noted earlier, the BIA did not discuss the nature and significance of the statute authorizing the reduction of petitioner's offense. Even if it had, however, we would owe no deference to its interpretation of this state provision, "which the BIA [neither] administers [n]or has any particular expertise in interpreting." Garcia-Lopez v. Ashcroft, 334 F.3d 840, 843 (9th Cir. 2003).