Opinion ID: 175021
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Proceedings Before the IJ and the Appeal to the BIA

Text: In 2003, 2004, and early 2005, Vartelas appeared before an IJ at a number of preliminary hearings at which various possible defenses to the charge of removability were discussed. At a hearing on June 15, 2005, however, Vartelas's then-attorney informed the IJ that Vartelas was conceding that he was removable as charged, but that he would request relief from removal under former § 212(c) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c) (1994) (repealed 1997). Although that section, which granted the Attorney General discretion to waive certain grounds of deportability for a subset of LPRs, had been repealed by IIRIRA, it remained available to LPRs whose convictions were based on guilty pleas entered before IIRIRA's effective date of April 1, 1997, see INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 121 S.Ct. 2271, 150 L.Ed.2d 347 (2001) ( St. Cyr II ), aff'g 229 F.3d 406 (2d Cir.2000) ( St. Cyr I ). After Vartelas's first attorney thereafter neglected his responsibilities, Vartelas changed attorneys and continued the strategy of conceding his removability and requesting a § 212(c) discretionary waiver of removal. In an Oral Decision delivered on June 27, 2006, the IJ denied Vartelas's application for relief under § 212(c). She noted, inter alia, that Vartelas had made frequent trips to Greece and remained there for long periods of time; had not paid his United States income taxes; had not shown hardship to himself, his estranged wife, or his United States citizen children who resided in Chicago with their mother; and had not shown that he supported the children. The IJ concluded that the equities did not warrant discretionary relief, and she ordered Vartelas removed from the United States to Greece. Vartelas appealed the IJ's decision to the BIA, arguing (1) that although he had committed a crime involving moral turpitude, he had been sentenced to a prison term of less than six months and that under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(ii)(II) his crime was thus not a removable offense; and (2) that, if removable, he should have been granted relief under § 212(c). In an opinion dated May 1, 2008, the Board affirmed the order of removal. It refused to consider Vartelas's contention that his conspiracy crime was not a removable offense, because Vartelas had conceded removability before the IJ. The Board rejected Vartelas's contention that he should have been granted § 212(c) relief, adopting and affirming the decision of the IJ. The Board noted that Vartelas had not taken advantage of the opportunity afforded him by the IJ to clarify the facts relevant to his tax problems, and it stated that the positive equities of Vartelas's family ties and long residence in the United States were offset by his frequent sojourns in Greece and his voluntarily maintaining his United States residence in New York, a great distance from his children.