Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants

 

The BIA will not “look behind” a state court order to determine whether the court acted in conformity with state law, but must instead afford “full faith and credit” to the judgment.  See § 4.5 (D), supra.[104]  The BIA rejected the Service’s argument that any conviction vacated for purposes of avoiding removal, rather than based on a legal defect in the criminal proceedings, remains a conviction under the INA; rather, a vacated conviction will not constitute a conviction for immigration purposes so long as it is not vacated under a state rehabilitative statute.[105] 

 

            It is well established that an alien may not collaterally attack the constitutional validity of a state-court criminal conviction in immigration court.[106]  For the same reasons, the immigration authorities cannot go behind a facially valid criminal court order vacating a conviction.

 

In general, as an administrative agency, the DHS (or EOIR) has no power to adjudicate the validity of convictions underlying deportation proceedings.[107]  The proper forum in which to challenge a conviction is the criminal court and not a proceeding before the Executive Office for Immigration Review.[108]

 

            This rule should also apply against the government: it is a jurisdictional restriction on the power of the immigration courts, and should apply equally to the noncitizen and the Service.  By analogy to criminal cases, there is a due process argument that a procedural rule, such as this one, must be applicable equally to both parties in order to pass constitutional muster.  The Due Process Clause speaks “to the balance of forces between the accused and his accuser. [Citation.]”[109]  Thus, the United States Supreme Court has “been particularly suspicious of state trial rules which provide nonreciprocal benefits to the State when the lack of reciprocity interferes with the defendant’s ability to secure a fair trial. [Citations.]”[110] 

 

            The Seventh Circuit handled this issue in a slightly different way, holding the INS had not established that the state judge acted without authority under state law when implicitly vacating a judgment of a deportable marijuana conviction, and imposing a sentence that could only be imposed for a non-deportable conviction of first-offense possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana:

 

The INS also alleges that the modification was entered solely for immigration purposes, and is thus ineffective.  This allegation is unfounded.  The judge’s modification was in response to Sandoval’s properly filed motion stating a cognizable claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.  That Sandoval may have filed his motion in response to the threat of deportation is irrelevant.  Further, even if the state court judge’s decision to modify Sandoval’s sentence was motivated by the consequences of the federal immigration law, that fact would not render the modification ineffective for immigration purposes.  See Matter of Kaneda, 16 I. & N. Dec. 677 (BIA 1979); Matter of O’Sullivan, 10 I. & N. Dec. 320, Interim Decision 1294 (BIA 1963).[111]

 

The court thus held the BIA and IJ erred in finding respondent deportable, and remanded for entry of an order terminating deportation proceedings.

 

[104] Matter of Rodriguez-Ruiz, 22 I. & N. Dec. 1378 (BIA 2000).

[105] Id.

[106]  Urbina-Mauricio v. INS, 989 F.2d 1085, 1089 (9th Cir. 1993); Avila-Murrieta v. INS, 762 F.2d 733, 736 (9th Cir. 1985); Ocon-Perez v. INS, 550 F.2d 1153, 1154 (9th Cir. 1977).

[107] Ocon-Perez v. INS, 550 F.2d 1153, 1154 (9th Cir. 1977); Aguilera-Enriquez v. INS, 516 F.2d 565, 570 (6th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1050 (1976).  Cf. Estrada-Rosales v. INS, 645 F.2d 819 (9th Cir. 1981) (plea procedurally defective and conviction set aside); Mendez v. INS, 563 F.2d 956 (9th Cir. 1977) (evidence of vacation of judgment available had counsel been given proper notice).

[108] Avila-Murrieta v. INS, 762 F.2d 733 (9th Cir. 1985); Ramirez-Juarez v. INS, 633 F.2d 174 (9th Cir. 1980); Wing v. INS, 46 F.2d 755 (7th Cir. 1931); De La Cruz v. INS, 951 F.2d 226 (9th Cir. 1991) (INS has no power to adjudicate validity of state convictions where alien alleges ineffective assistance of counsel in failing to inform of deportation consequences of guilty plea); Immigration Law and Crimes, § 4.1, n.1 (2003).

[109] Wardius v. Oregon, 412 U.S. 470, 474 (l973) [footnote omitted].

[110] Id., at p. 474 n.6; see also Green v. Bock Laundry Machine Co., 490 U.S. 504, 104 L.Ed.2d 557, 565 (l989); id., at p. 575 [concurring opinion of Scalia, J.]; Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 24-25 (l967) [concurring opinion of Harlan, J.].

[111] Sandoval v. INS, 240 F.3d 577, 583 (7th Cir. 2001) (emphasis supplied).