Court Opinion

ID: 9474418
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:56:43.098381+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:04.262871
License: Public Domain

FAGG, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully disagree with the court’s determination that an alien can attack collaterally a previous deportation order as a defense to a prosecution under 8 U.S.C. § 1326.
I would reverse the order of the district court dismissing the indictments against Mendoza-Lopez and Landeros-Quinones. In my view, aliens may not challenge deportation orders in section 1326 prosecutions because the “sole and exclusive procedure” for obtaining judicial review of deportation orders is embodied in the comprehensive review provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1105a. Although the court gives short shrift to Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 915, 63 L.Ed.2d 198 (1980), ante at 112, I believe the Lewis analysis is indeed supportive of the government’s view.
The starting point in the interpretation of any statute is the language of the statute itself. Lewis, 445 U.S. at 60, 100 S.Ct. at 918. Section 1326 clearly speaks only of the fact and not the quality of a previous deportation. “Any alien who — (1) has been arrested and deported * * 4 and thereafter (2) enters * * * the United States [without the consent of the Attorney General] shall be guilty of a felony.” 8 U.S.C. § 1326. “The lack of any express reference to the validity of the deportation or of the arrest indicates that the statute seeks to punish the unauthorized reentry of an alien previously deported, regardless of whether the deportation was ‘lawful.’ ” United States v. Petrella, 707 F.2d 64, 66 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 921, 104 S.Ct. 289, 78 L.Ed.2d 265 (1983). Cf. Lewis, 455 U.S. at 60, 100 S.Ct. at 918 (“No modifier is present, and nothing suggests any restriction on the scope of the term [deported].”)
Despite the plain language of the statute, the court today adopts the position that a lawful deportation is a material element of a section 1326 offense. Although an ambiguous criminal statute should be resolved in favor of lenity, see Rewis v. United States, 401 U.S. 808, 812, 91 S.Ct. 1056, 1059, 28 L.Ed.2d 493 (1971), in the interpretation of an unambiguous statute “any principle of lenity * * * has no application.” Lewis, 445 U.S. at 65, 100 S.Ct. at 920.
The legislative history of section 1326 is barren of any suggestion that Congress was willing to allow a defendant to question the validity of a prior deportation order in a section 1326 prosecution. See H.R. Rep. No. 1365, 82d Cond., 2d Sess., reprinted in 1952 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad. News 1653, 1724. In addition, my reading of section 1105a and its legislative history leads me to the conclusion that Congress intended to bar collateral attacks on deportation orders in prosecutions under 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Section 1105a was enacted in response to congressional concern over the inability to enforce effectively the deportation provisions of the immigration laws due to frivolous and repetitive attacks on depor*114tation orders. See H.R.Rep. No. 1086, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1961 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad.News 2950, 2967. “The purpose of section 5 [of the amendment] is to create a single, separate, statutory form of judicial review of administrative orders for the deportation and exclusion of aliens from the United States, by adding a new section [1105a] to the Immigration and Nationality Act.” Id. at 2966.
Section 1105a expressly supplies the “sole and exclusive” procedures available to aliens v/ho have not yet departed from the United States “to obtain judicial review of all final orders of deportation.” 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a). Under the statutory framework an alien may obtain judicial review in several ways. Cf. Lewis, 455 U.S. at 64, 100 S.Ct. at 920 (“[I]t is important to note that an [alien ordered deported] is not without relief.”). First, an alien may obtain civil review of a deportation order in the federal courts of appeals. 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a). Second, an alien in custody may obtain habeas corpus review. 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a)(9). Finally, aliens prosecuted under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(d) (violation of supervisory regulations) or 8 U.S.C. § 1252(e) (willful failure of an alien to depart) may challenge the validity of deportation orders in pretrial motions. 8 U.S.C. § 1105a(a)(6).
After reviewing the comprehensive scheme for judicial review that is available to aliens under section 1105a, the Second Circuit and the Fifth Circuit have concluded that aliens are not permitted to challenge deportation orders during prosecutions for unlawful reentry under section 1326. See United States v. Petrella, 707 F.2d at 66 (“[N]either the statute on its face nor the statutory scheme for review of deportation orders authorizes a challenge to the original deportation. We conclude, therefore, that Congress intended to bar collateral attacks in § 1326 prosecutions.”); United States v. Gonzalez-Parra, 438 F.2d 694, 697 (5th Cir.) (“We think it clear that Congress intended to bar collateral attacks on deportation orders in prosecutions under 8 U.S.C. § 1326.”), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 1010, 91 S.Ct. 2196, 29 L.Ed.2d 433 (1971).
Nor do I see any constitutional impediment to the view expressed in this dissent. First, the focus of section 1326 on the mere fact of deportation and unlawful reentry is rational in light of the congressional purpose to streamline judicial review of deportation orders. Second, the statutory scheme does provide a comprehensive, albeit exclusive, format for judicial review of deportation orders. Therefore, an alien subject to deportation has an opportunity outside of section 1326 to challenge the validity of the order. See Lewis, 455 U.S. at 65-67, 100 S.Ct. at 920-22; see also United States v. De La Cruz-Sepulveda, 656 F.2d 1129, 1132 (5th Cir.1981).
Because section 1105a provides the “sole and exclusive” method for obtaining judicial review of deportation orders, I would hold that an alien may not challenge a deportation order in his section 1326 prosecution. Therefore, I would reverse the district court’s dismissal of the indictments against Mendoza-Lopez and Landeros-Qui-nones.