Opinion ID: 166254
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Retroactive Applicability of Lucio-Lucio and Leocal

Text: 8 In denying Rivera-Nevarez's motion to dismiss the indictment, the district court concluded that the BIA's decision in Ramos and this court's decision in Lucio-Lucio were not retroactively applicable and that the removal was therefore valid at the time it occurred. Subsequently, the Supreme Court's decision in Leocal has conclusively established that DUI is not a crime of violence under the INA. 125 S.Ct. at 383. Because Leocal involves a question of statutory construction, its holding is retroactively applicable to the time of Rivera-Nevarez's removal hearing. Decisions of statutory interpretation are fully retroactive because they do not change the law, but rather explain what the law has always meant. See Rivers v. Roadway Express Inc., 511 U.S. 298, 312-13, 114 S.Ct. 1510, 128 L.Ed.2d 274 (1994) (A judicial construction of a statute is an authoritative statement of what the statute meant before as well as after the decision of the case giving rise to that construction.). For this reason, Leocal provides the correct interpretation of the law as it stood in 1999 when Rivera-Nevarez was deported. See United States v. Shelton, 848 F.2d 1485, 1489-90 (10th Cir.1988) (en banc). The district court's conclusion that Rivera-Nevarez's removal was valid at the time it occurred was therefore in error. 9