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Keywords

defendantpleamotiondeportationjudicial reviewguilty plea

defendantstatutepleamotiondeportationjudicial reviewappellantguilty plea

Related Cases

Moreno-Tapia; U.S. v.

Facts

Juan Antonio Moreno-Tapia, a native of Mexico, was convicted in North Carolina for taking indecent liberties with a child. He was later removed from the U.S. based on these convictions. After reentering the U.S. illegally, he was charged with illegal reentry and failure to register as a sex offender. Moreno-Tapia argued that his convictions were unconstitutional due to ineffective assistance of counsel, but the district court found that the convictions were valid at the time of his deportation.

In 2007, appellant Juan Antonio Moreno-Tapia, a native of Mexico, pleaded guilty in North Carolina court to three counts of indecent liberties with a child. According to Moreno-Tapia, neither his counsel nor the court informed him of the potential immigration consequences of his guilty plea. But those consequences turned out to be significant, and in 2009, Moreno-Tapia was removed from the United States on the basis of his state convictions.

Issue

The main legal issues were whether Moreno-Tapia could collaterally attack his removal order based on alleged constitutional deficiencies in his state convictions and whether the district court erred in applying a sentencing enhancement based on those convictions.

The primary question before us now is what effect the alleged constitutional deficiency in Moreno-Tapia's state convictions has on his subsequent prosecution for illegal reentry. We conclude that the alleged infirmity has no effect.

Rule

Under 8 U.S.C. 1326(d), a defendant can collaterally attack a removal order if they can demonstrate exhaustion of administrative remedies, deprivation of judicial review, and that the entry of the order was fundamentally unfair.

Under that statute, in order to bring a successful collateral attack against a removal order, the defendant in an illegal reentry prosecution must meet three requirements, demonstrating that: (1) [he or she] exhausted any administrative remedies that may have been available to seek relief against the order; (2) the deportation proceedings at which the order was issued improperly deprived the alien of the opportunity for judicial review; and (3) the entry of the order was fundamentally unfair.

Analysis

The court applied the rule by examining whether Moreno-Tapia met the requirements for a collateral attack under 1326(d). It concluded that he failed to exhaust administrative remedies and did not demonstrate that he was deprived of judicial review. The court noted that his complaints were about his underlying state convictions rather than the immigration proceedings themselves.

Relying on Moreno-Tapia's failure to satisfy the first two requirements of 1326, the district court had no need to make a final determination as to the third factor, fundamental unfairness. But the court did note that Moreno-Tapia was not asserting actual innocence of the indecent liberties charges, and that Padilla, on which the state MAR court relied, does not apply retroactively.

Conclusion

The court affirmed the district court's judgment, concluding that Moreno-Tapia's motion to vacate the removal order and withdraw his guilty plea was properly denied.

Accordingly, we hold that the district court properly denied Moreno-Tapia's motion to vacate the 2009 removal order and to withdraw his guilty plea to the charge of illegal reentry.

Who won?

The United States prevailed in the case because the court upheld the validity of the removal order and the sentencing enhancement based on Moreno-Tapia's prior convictions.

The court concluded that the alleged infirmity has no effect. Because Padilla does not apply retroactively to defendants like Moreno-Tapia, convicted before the case was decided, see Chaidez v. United States, 568 U.S. 342, 133 S. Ct. 1103, 1105, 185 L. Ed. 2d 149 (2013), Moreno-Tapia's convictions remain valid today as a matter of federal law, and his attempt to collaterally attack his 2009 removal is unavailing on that ground alone.

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