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Keywords

jurisdictionappealhabeas corpusfelonynaturalization
jurisdictionstatuteappealfelony

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Moreno-Bravo v. Gonzales

Facts

Moreno-Bravo was born in Peru and entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1988. In 1996, he was convicted of robbery in the second degree and sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment. Following his conviction, the Immigration and Naturalization Service initiated removal proceedings against him, asserting that he was removable due to his aggravated felony conviction. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed the removal order, leading Moreno-Bravo to file a habeas corpus petition in the district court, which was subsequently denied.

Moreno-Bravo was born in Peru on October 24, 1974 and entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1988 at age 14. He lived in New Jersey and has been residing in the United States ever since his lawful entry. In October 1996 he snatched a gold chain from the neck of one Mercedes Martinez in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was immediately apprehended by the police, and later on December 11, 1996 pled guilty to robbery in the second degree. The New Jersey Superior Court sentenced him to four and a half years imprisonment.

Issue

Whether an alien's habeas petition challenging a final order of removal and pending in the court during the enactment of the REAL ID Act should have been converted to a petition for review under 8 U.S.C. 1252, and whether the Act compelled the court to transfer the case to the circuit where the alien's immigration proceedings were held.

Two questions presented are first, whether an alien's habeas petition challenging a final order of removal and pending in this Court during the enactment of the REAL ID Act should be converted to a petition for review brought under 8 U.S.C. 1252; and second, whether the Act compels this Court, as a matter of jurisdiction, to transfer the case to the circuit where the alien's immigration proceedings were held — here, the Fifth Circuit.

Rule

The REAL ID Act mandates that a petition for review filed with the appropriate court of appeals shall be the sole means by which an alien can challenge a final order of removal. Section 1252(b)(2) is a venue provision, not a jurisdictional one.

Section 106 of the Act, the relevant portions of which are set out in an appendix at the end of this opinion, withdrew federal courts' jurisdiction to review final orders of removal through the habeas statute, 28 U.S.C. 2241, and mandated that 'a petition for review filed with the appropriate court of appeals in accordance with [8 U.S.C. 1252] shall be the sole and exclusive means' by which an alien could challenge such an order.

Analysis

The court applied the rule by determining that the REAL ID Act required the conversion of the habeas petition to a petition for review, as established in prior cases. However, it concluded that the venue provision did not compel a transfer to the Fifth Circuit, as the court retained jurisdiction to hear the case despite the venue issue.

Theoretically, in addition to being converted by this Court and then either transferred or retained by us, the appeal also could be transferred by us to the Fifth Circuit before it is formally converted, which would allow that court of appeals 'to treat the transferred case as if it had been filed' as a petition for review pursuant to 106(c); or it could be remanded to the district court and transferred by the lower court to the Fifth Circuit, which again would permit, albeit more circuitously, the other appellate court to convert the appeal.

Conclusion

The petition for review is denied, with the court affirming the district court's decision.

The petition for review is denied.

Who won?

The government prevailed in the case as the court upheld the denial of the habeas petition, affirming that Moreno-Bravo's conviction qualified as an aggravated felony under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The district court denied Moreno-Bravo's petition for habeas relief. It found that though petitioner correctly claimed that his criminal conviction for second-degree robbery required an imprisonment term of at least five years to qualify as an aggravated felony under the latest codified version of the INA as of December 1996, Congress had subsequently redefined and expanded the term to encompass crimes that, like his, involved imprisonment terms of only a year or more.

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