Court Opinion

ID: 9489534
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:18:11.936116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:35.090611
License: Public Domain

LAY,
dissenting.
In 1985, Carlos Camaeho-Bordes entered a guilty plea to a drug trafficking offense pursuant to a plea agreement. The district court, the Honorable Paul A Magnuson, presiding, granted Camaeho-Bordes’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea, finding that the government failed to fulfill its plea agreement and exhibited bad faith by deporting Camaeho-Bordes without giving him the opportunity to present the government’s recommendation against deportation. I find no error in the district court’s analysis.
The record shows that Camaeho-Bordes’s sole purpose in entering into the plea bargain with the government was to ameliorate the negative immigration consequences that would flow from his conviction, including the burdens that deportation would place on his U.S. citizen spouse and their four U.S. citizen children. The plea bargain was induced by the government’s promise to recommend against deportation upon his request.1
*1176In the context of this case, the government, at least in my judgment and the judgment of the district court, has attempted to play fast and loose with the petitioner. It is true, as the majority finds, that the plea agreement did not expressly provide that the government’s recommendation was to be made at a § 212(c) hearing for discretionary relief from an order of deportation, see 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c), but the plea agreement and the colloquy reflect the parties’ clear intent that Camacho-Bordes would have a meaningful opportunity to present the government’s recommendation to the INS against his deportation. In his deportation proceedings, Camacho-Bordes conceded deportability,2 but sought § 212(c) relief. At that time, discretionary relief under § 212(c) provided the only procedure by which he could obtain relief from deportation.
The government’s reliance on the INS’s ability to stop the deportation proceedings in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion is misplaced. The INS’s prosecutorial discretion “is akin to [the Attorney General’s] responsibility for enforcing the criminal laws[.]” See Johns v. Department of Justice, 653 F.2d 884, 889 (5th Cir.1981). Appealing to the prosecutorial discretion of the Attorney General is not a procedure: there is no notice, no opportunity to be heard, no record of decision, and no requirement of informed decision-making in the exercise of that discretion. The government’s recommendation was not intended to be given to the INS in such an informal and wholly discretionary context.
Although there is no showing that the U.S. Attorney prosecuting Camacho-Bordes actually knew that he would be ineligible for § 212(c) relief, the prevailing law in 1985 was sufficiently well-settled that the U.S. Attorney should have known that Camacho-Bordes would be ineligible for § 212(c) relief until November 13, 1990 — seven years after he became a lawful permanent resident on the basis of his marriage to a U.S. citizen.3 Neither the prosecutor nor the court nor defense counsel, however, informed Camacho-Bordes that under existing law in 1985, he would not be eligible for discretionary relief from an order of deportation unless the order occurred after November 13,1990.4 In such circumstances, the government’s promise was illusory and constituted a false inducement for Camacho-Bordes to enter his guilty plea.
In Mabry v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 504, 104 S.Ct. 2543, 81 L.Ed.2d 437 (1984), the Supreme Court explained:
“[A] plea of guilty entered by one fully aware of the direct consequences, including the actual value of any commitments made to him by the court, prosecutor, or his own counsel, must stand unless induced by threats (or promises to discontinue improper harassment), misrepresentation (in-*1177eluding unfulfilled or unfulfillable promises), or perhaps by promises that are by their nature improper as having no proper relationship to the prosecutor’s business (e.g., bribes).”
Id. at 509, 104 S.Ct. at 2547 (quoting Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 755, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1472, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970) (internal quotation omitted)) (alteration in original and emphasis added). “[0]nly when it develops that the defendant was not fairly apprised of its consequences can his plea be challenged under the Due Process Clause.” Id. Given the development that he was not eligible for discretionary relief under § 212(c), without which he had no opportunity for a hearing to develop an administrative record demonstrating equitable factors in his favor, it is clear that he was not fully and fairly apprised of the illusory nature of the government’s promise to make a written recommendation to the INS against his deportation.
' Like the district court, I also find that the government exhibited bad faith by allowing the deportation of Camacho-Bordes that mooted his appeal seeking a § 212(e) hearing. Camacho-Bordes sought a stay of his deportation to allow this court to hear his appeal from the order of deportation. The Department of Justice, representing the INS, opposed his motion for a stay, and later moved successfully to dissolve the stay. The Department of Justice was fully aware that if the stay was dissolved, the INS intended to deport Camacho-Bordes and thereby moot his appeal. In my judgment, it was incumbent upon both the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney (i.e., “the government”) to attempt to preserve an opportunity for Camacho-Bordes to present the government’s recommendation against deportation. See Camacho-Bordes v. INS, 33 F.3d 26, 27 (8th Cir.1994) (referring to the INS, represented by the Department of Justice, as “the government”).
Under Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(d), a defendant may only withdraw a guilty plea after the imposition of his sentence if the plea is the product of “ ‘a fundamental defect which inherently results in a complete miscarriage of justice’ or ‘an omission inconsistent with the rudimentary demands of a fair procedure.’ ” Fed.R.Crim.P. 32 advisory committee’s note (quoting Hill v. United States, 368 U.S. 424, 428, 82 S.Ct. 468, 471, 7 L.Ed.2d 417 (1962)). Camacho-Bordes’s sole purpose in entering the plea bargain was to lessen the chance of his deportation. He entered that plea bargain based on an illusory promise by the government to make a meaningful recommendation against deportation. In doing so, he was deprived of his fundamental right to contest his guilt and thereby contest the government’s right of deportation. This is a miscarriage of justice. Accordingly, I would affirm the district court’s judgment allowing Camacho-Bordes to withdraw his guilty plea.

. The plea agreement, which was presented orally in the district court, provided that "the Government agrees, if requested by Mr. Bordes, to make a written recommendation against deportation to the INS.” In taking the plea from Camacho-Bordes, the district court, the Honorable Diana Murphy, said, "Part of this agreement is that if you want- — and I’m sure that you may well want the Government to follow up on this — but that the Government would write a letter recommending that you not be deported.” Judge Murphy explained that "presumably the INS will *1176consider carefully what the U.S. Attorney says, [although] it doesn’t have to do what the U.S. Attorney recommends.”

. Camacho-Bordes was without question deport-able under the immigration laws and thus rightfully conceded deportability. See Immigration and Nationality Act, § 241(a)(ll), 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(ll) (1988) (providing for the deportation of any alien convicted of certain drug offenses) (now codified as amended at 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(2)(B)©).

. As the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA") found in response to Camacho-Bordes's argument that the seven-year time period under § 212(c) should have commenced on his first lawful visit to the United States in 1979:
We have consistently held that the acquisition of lawful domicile time for purposes of eligibility under section 212(c) of the Act must be subsequent to the date of admission as a lawful permanent resident. Matter of Kim, 17 I & N Dec. 144 (BIA 1979); Matter of Newton, 17 I & N Dec. 133 (BIA 1979); Matter of Anwo, 16 I & N Dec. 293 (BIA 1977), aff'd Anwo v. INS, 607 F.2d 435 (D.C.Cir.1979); Matter of S-, 5 I & N Dec. 516 (BIA 1953); see also Chiravacharadhikul v. INS, 645 F.2d 248 (4th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 893, 102 S.Ct. 389, 70 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981); Castillo-Felix v. INS, 601 F.2d 459 (9th Cir.1979).
See Def. Ex. K.

.After Camacho-Bordes entered his guilty plea, Congress amended § 242 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that ”[i]n the case of an alien who is convicted of an offense which makes the alien subject to deportation, the Attorney General shall begin any deportation proceeding as expeditiously as possible after the date of conviction.” See Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Pub-L. No. 99-603, § 701, 100 Stat. 3359, 3445 (1986) (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1252©).