Opinion ID: 764472
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Mejia's Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

Text: 22 On September 26, 1997, while his motion to reopen his deportation proceedings was still pending before the BIA, Mejia filed a § 2241 petition for habeas corpus in United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. 28 U.S.C. § 2241. In this petition, Mejia alleged that the immigration judge's order pretermitting Mejia's application for suspension of deportation was based upon an unconstitutional conviction subsequently vacated by the Florida state courts. Mejia's petition further alleged that this ineffective assistance of counsel in state court unconstitutionally tainted Mejia's federal immigration proceedings because it had the collateral effect of precluding Mejia's application for suspension of deportation, which was provided for under federal law. Finally, Mejia alleged that denying him the right to seek a suspension of deportation based on his unconstitutionally obtained state drug conviction constituted a deprivation of due process. 23 On September 26, 1997, the district court dismissed Mejia's habeas petition and denied his request for a stay of deportation. The district court found that Mejia's petition was not timely filed under INA § 106(a)(1), 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a)(1) (1996). 24 Mejia filed a motion for reconsideration of the court's order and for a stay of his deportation. In his motion, Mejia argued that the district court had erroneously relied on INA § 106(a)(1), a statute that had been repealed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), and that his petition was based on 28 U.S.C. § 2241--not INA § 106(a)(1). On October 7, 1997, the district court granted Mejia's motion to the extent it sought a stay of his deportation. The court denied Mejia's motion for reconsideration in an order dated November 14, 1997.