Court Opinion

ID: 9475307
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:23:27.645581+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:38.519609
License: Public Domain

NELSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Because I believe that United States v. Rangel-Gonzales, 617 F.2d 529 (9th Cir.1980), compels reversal, I respectfully dissent.
In Rangel-Gonzales, we held that an alien establishes prejudice where he shows that “he did not know of his right to consult with consular officials, that he would have availed himself of that right had he known of it, and that there was a likelihood that the contact would have resulted in assistance to him in resisting deportation.” 617 F.2d at 533 (emphasis added). The affidavits submitted in that case, which we found sufficient to establish prejudice, showed that Rangel-Gonzales would have contacted his consul had he been informed of his right to do so, that the Mexican Consul would have helped the alien contact friends and an attorney, and that various family members and social groups would have been of assistance had they been contacted. Id. at 531. The affidavits submitted by Cerda-Pena in the present *1381case are nearly identical, see ante at 1378 n. 4, and thus, also establish prejudice.
In an unsuccessful attempt to distinguish Rangel-Gonzales from the present case, the majority relies on Rangel-Gonzales’s submission of an affidavit from an experienced immigration attorney. The affidavit stated that with appropriate assistance, an individual in Rangel-Gonzales’s position could have obtained voluntary departure rather than deportation. 617 F.2d at 531. Contrary to the majority’s assertion, however, the availability of voluntary departure did not provide the basis for our conclusion that Rangel-Gonzales “did show some likelihood that had the regulation been followed his defense and the conduct of the hearing would have been materially affected,” ante at 1378 n. 5. Rather, we based that conclusion on the alien’s showing that “he did not know of his right to contact the consular officials, that he would have done so had he known, and that such consultation may well have led not merely to appointment of counsel, but also to community assistance in creating a more favorable record to present to the immigration judge on the question of deportation.” Id. (emphasis added). The affidavits submitted by Cerda-Pena in the present case establish no less.
The majority maintains that “the Rangel-Gonzales court did not satisfy itself by finding that, absent the INS violation, the alien’s defense, though no more meritorious, would have been in some vague sense better.” It then underscores the court’s finding that consultation with consular officials may well have led to community assistance in creating a more favorable record. Ante at 1379 n. 7.
However, at no point in Rangel-Gonzales did we discuss how the record would have been more favorable. Moreover, in rejecting an INS affidavit stating that Rangel-Gonzales was ineligible for voluntary departure, we stated: “That affidavit could have taken into account only the record presented to the judge in the actual deportation proceeding and could not have taken into account any factors which might have been developed ... as a result of consultation with consular officials.” 617 F.2d at 531 (emphasis added). Again, following this statement, nowhere did we indicate what factors might have been developed. Rather, we assumed that with the aid of consular officials, there might have been additional factors. It was sufficient to find prejudice that the violation “frustrate[d] the purpose ... which the regulation implements, namely to promote assistance to aliens from officials of their country of origin.” Id. at 533. Thus, I believe that Cerda-Pena’s defense has been “materially affected” as that term is properly understood.
In my view, the majority errs by ignoring the clear language of Rangel-Gonzales, and focusing instead on United States v. Calderon-Medina, 591 F.2d 529 (9th Cir.1979). This error may stem from a failure to recognize the procedural relationship between those two cases. The claims of both Calderon-Medina and Rangel-Gonzales were before us as companion cases in Calderon-Medina. In that decision, our task was merely to determine whether the prejudice standard applied at all, and not to elaborate on the content or application of that standard. We thus remanded both claims, directing the district court to determine whether the INS’s violations prejudiced Rangel-Gonzales and Calderon-Medina. In the process of remanding, we offhandedly mentioned the prejudice “standard” to which the majority adheres.
By contrast, in Rangel-Gonzales, we were reviewing the district court’s decision, made pursuant to our remand in Calderon-Medina, regarding prejudice. It was only in Rangel-Gonzales that we fully discussed the content of the prejudice standard. In so doing, we clearly focused on the alien’s ability to obtain legal, community, and family assistance, not on the substance of what that assistance actually would have yielded. See 617 F.2d at 531 (INS affidavit insufficient because it fails to include any factors which “might have been” developed as a result of consultation with consular officials). We did so because the prejudice inquiry is directed to the interest protected by the violated regulation, and the regulation violated in Rangel-Gonzales, as in the *1382present case, protected the alien’s interest in “obtaining assistance in preparing a defense to the deportatio....” Id. at 530 (emphasis added). The majority apparently overlooks this interest, and the procedural relationship between the cases, in adopting the “standard” mentioned in Calderon-Medina only as an afterthought, and ignoring the more thoroughly reasoned standard expressly set forth in Rangel-Gonzales.
Given the Rangel-Gonzales standard, I would reverse the district court’s finding of no prejudice. Because the district court assumed for the purpose of its ruling that the alleged violations had occurred, I would remand to the district court for a determination of whether the INS in fact violated the regulations at issue.