Court Opinion

ID: 9463858
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:18:23.60298+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:19.503605
License: Public Domain

WISDOM, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. I would hold that this case is controlled by Rosenberg v. Fleu-ti, 1963, 374 U.S. 449, 83 S.Ct. 1804, 10 L.Ed.2d 1000, and its progeny in this Circuit, Vargas-Banuelos v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 5 Cir. 1972, 466 F.2d 1371 and Yanez-Jacquez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 5 Cir. 1971, 440 F.2d 701.
In Yanez-Jacquez, the petitioner, legally admitted into the United States in 1955, made a brief excursion into Mexico in 1963 to avenge an assault committed upon him while he was in Mexico the day before. He forgot to take with him his Border Crossing Identification Card. When he failed to find his intended victim, Yanez-Jacquez crossed the Rio Grande back into the United States. He was picked up by the border patrol, but was released when his mother came to the patrol station with his Border Crossing Identification Card. In 1968, Yanez-Jac-quez was convicted of uttering a forged instrument and the United States, relying on the 1963 incident as an “entry”, sought to deport him under 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(4). This section provides that an alien is de-portable who “is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years after entry . . .” Despite the petitioner’s criminal motive in leaving the United States, this Court held that the 1963 crossing did not constitute an “entry”, because “there is less than adequate evidence in the record to support a finding that the petitioner left the country with the intent to interrupt in any meaningful manner his status as a permanent resident alien”. 440 F.2d at 704.
In Vargas-Banuelos, the petitioner was admitted into the United States as a permanent resident alien in 1963. In 1970 he went to Mexico to pay a condolence call. While there, he was approached by four Mexicans who sought his aid in gaining illegal entry into the United States. The petitioner accepted money from them and helped them arrange their illegal entry. All of the parties, including Vargas-Banue-*1247los, were apprehended in Texas shortly after crossing the border. It is unclear. whether Vargas-Banuelos himself actually entered the country in an illegal manner. He pleaded guilty to four counts of aiding and abetting the four Mexicans in entering the country illegally, and the United States — using his condolence excursion and return as an “entry” — attempted to deport him under 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(13). This section provides that an alien is deportable who “prior to, or at the time of entry, or at any time within five years after any entry, shall have, knowingly and for gain, encouraged, induced, assisted, abetted, or aided any other alien to enter or to try to enter the United Stated in violation of law”. Emphasizing that Vargas-Banuelos did not harbor any criminal intent before leaving the United States and that the purpose of his trip was to make a brief condolence call, we held that Vargas-Banuelos’s 1970 border-crossing did not constitute an entry under Fleuti and Yanez-Jacquez, and issued these words of caution: “Let us not exalt every migrant’s deviation from rectitude into illegal ‘entries’ within the statutory definition”. 466 F.2d at 1374.
Thus, the state of the law in this circuit regarding what constitutes an “entry” within the definition of that term given in § 101(a)(13) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 101(a)(13), for purposes of deporting a resident alien for any of the reasons listed in § 241 of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1251, is as follows: Where a resident alien’s excursion out of the United States is brief, the government must show (1) that the alien had a subjective intention at the time of his departure from the United States to interrupt his residential status, or (2) that the resident alien harbored a criminal purpose before leaving the United States, to make the alien’s re-entry into the United States an “entry”. Neither of these criteria are met in the instant case. First, the government does not contend, and nothing in the facts indicates, that Laredo-Miranda intended to interrupt his status as a resident alien. Indeed, the majority recognizes that “Laredo-Miranda entered Juarez, Mexico, on August 16, 1975, for the sole purpose of having a meal with his girl friend and her family . . . .” at 1243. Second, as the majority and the Immigration and Naturalization Service also concede, when Laredo-Miranda left the United States, he “did not intend to take part in the actual smuggling”. Id.
Furthermore, rather than supporting the Board’s order, the one factor that distinguishes Fleuti, Yanez-Jacquez, and Vargas-Banuelos from the instant appeal makes the case for reversal of Laredo-Miranda’s deportation order even more compelling. In those cases, the “entry” involved was simply a necessary prerequisite for deporting the resident aliens for other reasons — Fleu-ti’s homosexuality, Yanez-Jacquez’s conviction of uttering a forged instrument, and Vargas-Banuelos’s conviction of aiding and abetting illegal entry. In this case, on the other hand, the resident alien’s alleged illegal entry alone is the very reason he is being deported. The petitioners in Yanez-Jacquez and Vargas-Banuelos, who were convicted of criminal acts, were certainly more culpable and less desirable residents than Laredo-Miranda, whose alleged wrongdoing in aiding illegal aliens to enter the country has never even been the subject of a criminal prosecution. This is especially so in light of the fact that, in addition to their subsequent criminal acts, Yanez-Jac-quez’s 1963 entrance was definitely, and Vargas-Banuelos’s 1970 entry was apparently as illegal as Laredo-Miranda’s entry was here. I would REVERSE the Board’s order.