Opinion ID: 795173
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jurisdiction over the 1991 Deportation

Text: 7 The bulk of Charleswell's appeal hinges on his effort to collaterally attack both the 1991 Deportation and the 2001 Reinstatement. Before turning to the substance of these collateral challenges, however, we must first address some confusion over which order constitutes the predicate element of Charleswell's § 1326 conviction. 3 The government argues that we lack jurisdiction to review the 1991 Deportation, signaling its belief that Charleswell's conviction is premised solely on the 2001 Reinstatement and, consequently, that Charleswell is precluded from a collateral challenge to the original 1991 Deportation. Reading the indictment, it might seem that the government is correct, as it invokes only the 2001 Reinstatement as the underlying deportation order required for a § 1326 charge. However, Mendoza-Lopez did not constrict collateral challenges in the way that the government advocates and we do not agree that, for purposes of a collateral challenge, we are limited to reviewing only the 2001 Reinstatement. Rather, under Mendoza-Lopez, an alien may mount, and we must hear, a challenge to the validity of both a reinstatement order and the original deportation or removal order. See generally United States v. Luna, 436 F.3d 312 (1st Cir.2006) (discussing, but not deciding, which of two deportation orders could act as a basis for an illegal re-entry indictment); Ramirez-Molina v. Ziglar, 436 F.3d 508 (5th Cir.2006) (concluding that on direct appeal from a reinstatement order the court retained the power to hear constitutional and legal challenges to the underlying deportation order). To hold otherwise would allow the government to avoid the consequences of a fundamentally unfair underlying deportation or removal proceeding simply by deleting it from the indictment, in contravention of the teaching in Mendoza-Lopez that where a determination made in an administrative proceeding is to play a critical role in the subsequent imposition of a criminal sanction, there must be some meaningful review of the administrative proceeding. Mendoza-Lopez, 481 U.S. at 837-38, 107 S.Ct. 2148 (first emphasis added). Reinstatement orders do not exist independent and separate from their prior orders of removal but are instead explicitly premised on the prior order. See 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(5); Ramirez-Molina, 436 F.3d at 514. Consequently, the prior order remains a critical element of the reinstatement and, more importantly, of the illegal re-entry charge where that charge is premised on the reinstatement. Thus, insofar as the underlying element of the § 1326 proceeding is the reinstatement order, an alien may attempt to collaterally challenge both the original deportation order and the reinstatement order. And, where either proceeding — the reinstatement or the original — is so procedurally flawed that it effectively eliminated the right of the alien to obtain judicial review, we may invalidate the criminal charges stemming therefrom. 4 See Mendoza-Lopez, at 839, 107 S.Ct. 2148. 8