A few weeks ago, we discussed the conspicuous absence of AG Holder from the ongoing Silva-Trevino controversy.  Since that time, the BIA has issued another opinion attempting to articulate when it is proper for an IJ to abandon traditional categorical (Step One) and Modified Categorical (Step Two) and resort to Silva-Trevino’s amorphous Step Three.

Removal matters decided solely on Silva-Trevino Step Three continue to make their way to Circuit Court.  The issue then becomes whether the agency’s opinion in Silva-Trevino is entitled to any judicial deference, and if so, how much.

AILA, joined by the Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers’ Guild, and the University of Maryland School of Law Immigration Clinic, filed an Amicus Brief with the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals last week arguing former AG Mukasey’s needless departure from a century of case law in Silva-Trevino is entitled to no deference.  In fact, the 4^th Circuit observed thirty-five years ago that the focus of the INA “is on the type of crime committed rather than on the factual context surrounding the actual commission of the offense.”  Castle v. INS, 541 F.2d 1064, 1066 n. 5 (4^th Cir. 1976).  There was no ambiguity then (which could make room for reasonable agency interpretation) and there is no ambiguity now.  AG Mukasey simply ignored the plain language of the statute, which makes the focus on the criminal conviction, rather than the circumstances surrounding a criminal arrest.

The Waheed brief was assembled and edited by Jeremy McKinney, Maria Andrade, and Russell Abrutyn for AILA and Isaac Wheeler for the Immigrant Defense Project.  However, the brief itself is simply the latest rendition of what AILA and other associations have been saying since Silva-Trevino was released in 2008.  The original scholarship came from many others who blazed the trail, such as Br. of IDP et al. as Amicus Curiae, Prudencio v Holder, No. 10-2382 (4^th Cir. 2011) and Br. of AILA et al. in Support of Motion for Reconsideration, Matter of Silva-Trevino (A.G. 2008).  Hopefully, our unified message and team approach to Silva-Trevino litigation will continue to yield results!

Two months before leaving office, President George W. Bush’s Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, issued a landmark immigration decision overturning a century of jurisprudence regarding the analysis of criminal convictions for immigration consequences.  In a nutshell, the decision states that to determine whether a crime is a “crime involving moral turpitude” (CIMT), first an Immigration Judge looks to the elements of the offense and asks whether the crime categorically involves moral turpitude or not (the inquiry ended there for most of the last century).  If there is a “realistic probability” that the prohibited act sometimes does and sometimes does not involve moral turpitude, then the Court can look to the record of conviction to see if the specific case involves moral turpitude.  If the record of conviction does not yield an answer, the Court may consider evidence outside the record of conviction.  Matter of Silva-Trevino, 24 I&N Dec. 687 (A.G. 2008).  The BIA quickly illustrated that while DHS has the ability to attach removal consequences in three different ways (if step 1 doesn’t work, try step 2; if step 2 doesn’t work, try step 3), the noncitizen in removal proceeding does not share the ability to detach immigration consequences based on the underlying circumstances of the conviction.  See, e.g., Matter of Louissaint, 24 I. & N. Dec. 754 (BIA 2009).

As the AILA Amicus Committee reported last year, “Immigrant advocates, although caught completely unawares–the AG had never told Mr. Silva-Trevino, let alone the broader legal community, why the case was certified–reacted swiftly. Several organizations submitted an amicus brief to the AG urging reconsideration of his decision because of the defective process behind the certification, its inconsistency with a century of uniform precedent, and the negative practical consequences Silva-Trevino will have on the functioning of immigration and criminal systems.”

To date, Attorney General Holder has been silent on this issue.  The administrative board he oversees, the BIA, continues to apply Silva-Trevino with vigor.  Most recently, the Board issued a precedent decision with the following headnote:

Absent otherwise controlling authority, Immigration Judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals are bound to apply all three steps of the procedural framework set forth by the Attorney General in Matter of Silva-Trevino for determining whether a particular offense constitutes a crime involving moral turpitude.

Matter of Guevara Alfaro, 25 I. & N. Dec. 417 (BIA 2011) (emphasis added).  Reading the headnote in isolation, one could conclude that every case addressing whether an offense is a CIMT now requires a “mini-trial” since step 3 (allowing the IJ to consider any evidence) swallows steps 1 and 2 of the inquiry.  Such a reading, however, contradicts the AG’s own words.  Silva-Trevino, 24 I&N Dec. at 703 (“allowing inquiry beyond the record of conviction does not mean that the parties would be free to present ‘any and all evidence bearing on an alien’s conduct leading to the conviction.’ … In many, if not most, cases, the judge will not have to go beyond the record of conviction, which includes the transcript of any plea.”).

Unfortunately, this flawed headnote reading is already at play in Immigration Courts.  For example, an Atlanta Immigration Judge had terminated proceedings in a case presenting the question whether Georgia’s public indecency statute was a CIMT.  The IJ had terminated proceedings, finding that Georgia’s public indecency statute was not categorically a CIMT (Matter of Mueller, 11 I&N Dec. 268 (BIA 1965)), and the conviction record failed to evidence a lewd or evil intent.  DHS filed a Motion for Reconsideration.  Guevara Alfaro was released while the DHS motion was pending, and DHS immediately notified the IJ of the BIA decision.  The IJ denied DHS’s Motion for Reconsideration, but, in doing so, applied all three steps of Silva-Trevino.  This exercise prolonged the respondent’s detention for several more weeks.

Understanding Guevara Alfaro requires reading beyond the headnote.  The specific question before the Board was whether “the substantive holding with regard to statutory rape offenses in [Silva Trevino] is limited to cases in which the defendant knew or should have known the victim’s age, and the question whether the respondent’s case meets that criterion can be determined only upon application of the third step of Silva-Trevino’s procedural framework.”  Id. at 419.  The Board concluded in determining whether an “indecency with a child” conviction was a CIMT, an additional inquiry would have to be made to determine whether respondent knew or should have known the age of the victim.  This does not mean that such an additional inquiry would be necessary in “many, if not most” cases.  The Guevara Alfaro headnote, however, does not make any such limitation.  The application of this case is just the latest example of “circumstance-specific” analysis run amuck.

Prior to Silva-Trevino, we have a century of jurisprudence that gives prosecutors, criminal defendants and their attorneys general guidance as to what is and what is not a CIMT, in an age where “deportation is an integral part—indeed, sometimes the most important part—of the penalty that may be imposed on noncitizen defendants who plead guilty to specified crimes.”  Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010).  We have a century of jurisprudence which promotes the uniform application of the law to similar convictions (regardless of disparate underlying facts).  We have a century of jurisprudence that promotes the efficient adjudication of removal matters.  Silva-Trevino and its progeny turn these principles on their head.

Our current Attorney General needs to hit the “reset” button and get us back to established precedent – which is just in its sheer simplicity — “Neither the immigration officials, nor we, may consider the circumstances under which the crime was in fact committed. When by its definition it does not necessarily involve moral turpitude, the alien cannot be deported because in the particular instance his conduct was immoral. Conversely, when it does, no evidence is competent that he was in fact blameless.” United States ex rel. Robinson v. Day, 51 F.2d 1022, 1023 (2nd Cir. 1931) (L. Hand, J.).

Mr. Holder, where art thou?

By guest bloggers Katrina Bondoc and Jacob Egler, Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College

The United States Supreme Court is considering the implications of its seminal case, INS v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032 (1984) (which held that the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule is inapplicable to deportation proceedings)  in a New York State criminal proceeding.  The case is called Tolentino v. New York, 0-11556.  The question presented is: Whether pre-existing identity-related governmental documents, such as motor vehicle records, obtained as the direct result of police action violative of the Fourth Amendment, are subject to the exclusionary rule?

Lopez-Mendoza has always been a difficult case to grapple with in the immigration context.  In anticipating the implications of a decision in Tolentino, we’ve pulled together a summary of how Lopez-Mendoza is treated in the different circuits and the state of law regarding suppression.

The general rule from Lopez-Mendoza is that deportation proceedings (and, likewise, removal proceedings) are civil actions that determine the eligibility of an alien to remain in the United States.  Thus, certain protections afforded to defendants in criminal actions, such as the exclusionary rule, are inapplicable in removal proceedings. However, this is not unfettered. A glimmer of hope lies in language in Lopez-Mendoza pertaining to “egregious violations of the Fourth Amendment or other liberties that transgress notions of fundamental fairness and undermine the probative value of evidence obtained.” See Navarro-Chalan v. Ashcroft, 359 F.3d 19, 23 (1st Cir. 2004); see also Gonzalez-Reyes v. Holder, 313 Fed. Appx. 690, 695 (5th Cir. 2009) (exclusionary rule is inapplicable in removal proceedings, absent some egregious violations of Fourth Amendment or other liberties). See e.g. Martins v. Attorney General of the United States, 306 Fed. Appx. 802, 804 (3d Cir. 2009) (affirming denial of suppression of evidence gathered by police and immigration officials under the fairly ordinary conditions the alien was interviewed in).

The exception, while technically present, is practically nonexistent outside the Ninth Circuit. The requisite level of egregiousness is largely undefined, and courts outside the Ninth Circuit have construed the exception very narrowly. For instance, the Fifth Circuit has expressed misgivings about readily finding an egregious violation when the example given by the Lopez-Mendoza plurality involved induced vomiting. See Escobar v. Holder, 2010 WL 4009870 (5th Cir. 2010); see also Gutierrez-Berdin v. Holder, 618 F.3d 647, 652 (7th Cir. 2010) (exclusion is seen as a “relatively narrow remedy” and “very minor physical abuse coupled with aggressive questioning” is not considered egregious). In addition to egregious violations of the Fourth Amendment or other liberties prong, the “and undermine probative value of evidence obtained” prong has been interpreted in some circuits to require that the unlawfully obtained evidence of an alien’s identity also undermine its probative value. The usual scenario involves obtaining an alien’s identity, which ultimately relates to her status, through other lawful means. Thus, unlawfully obtained evidence does not undermine its probative value even though the government would have never learned of the alien’s status but for the violation. In Miguel v. INS, 359 F.3d 408, 410 (6th Cir. 2004), the court refused to analyze the applicability of the exception because the alien’s removability was based on her own admissions independent from evidence gathered by INS agents that had conducted a search of her home in potential violation of the Fourth Amendment. Id at 411. Potential violations of liberties notwithstanding, the second prong effectively functions as a catch-all for the government.

The Second Circuit, however, makes use of the disjunctive “or.” The standard is not a two-part test. Rather, it is a question of whether the evidence was obtained under the context of an egregious violation or undermines the probative value of the evidence obtained. Almeida-Amaral v. Gonzales, 461 F.3d 231, 234 (2d Cir. 2006) (“the Lopez-Mendoza court inadvertently used the conjunctive ‘and’ instead of the disjunctive ‘or’ to link these two possible grounds for deeming a violation egregious”). The Eighth Circuit also appears to have adopted this view and has given further guidance on what might qualify as egregious by listing violations involving physical brutality, unreasonable show or use of force, or an arrest based solely on race. Puc-Ruiz v. Holder, 2010 WL 5185803 (8th Cir. 2010). While a disjunctive standard seemingly broadens the exception, it has yet to be successfully applied.

Only the Ninth Circuit takes an expansive view of the Lopez-Mendoza exception.  In the Ninth Circuit, the applicable test is “[a] Fourth Amendment violation is egregious if evidence is obtained by deliberate violations of the Fourth Amendment, or by conduct a reasonable officer should have known is in violation of the Constitution.” Lopez-Rodriguez v. Mukasey, 536 F.3d 1012 (9th Cir. 2008) (internal quotations omitted). See also Martinez-Medina v. Holder, 616 F.3d 1011 (9th Cir. 2010) (an egregious violation had not occurred because a reasonable officer would not have known he lacked probable cause).  The expansive nature of this interpretation of the exception is best understood through comparison with the dissent from the order denying rehearing en banc of Lopez Rodriguez v. Holder.  In the dissenting judges’ view “[The 9th Circuit] seem[s] to have turned Supreme Court plurality dicta into majority dicta simply by saying so. Then…applied that dicta, in a manner not consistent with the sole case cited in the dicta, to create a new rule-one never envisioned by either the Supreme Court majority or the plurality.” Lopez-Rodriguez v. Mukasey, 560 F.3d 1098 (9th Cir. 2009).

However, in cases concerning criminal deportation proceedings under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, courts more readily accept the appropriateness of the “egregious violation” exception  in both jurisdictions that interpret the “identity statement” in Lopez-Mendoza as applicable to a court’s jurisdiction over a defendant, and as an evidentiary issue. In  United States v. Oscar-Torres, 507 F.3d 224, 228 (4th Cir. 2007), the court explained that in a criminal deportation proceeding, there are instances for suppressing evidence of a defendant’s identity because the language pertaining to “identity statement” in Lopez-Mendoza is in regards to a court’s jurisdiction over a defendant, not suppression of unlawfully obtained evidence relating to his identity. The court further emphasized that the exclusionary rule does not apply in civil deportation proceedings. Id. at 230. In circuits that interpret the “identity statement” in Lopez-Mendoza as barring suppression of evidence of identity, the “egregious violation” exception is also invoked. See United States v. Bowley, 435 F.3d 426, 431 (3d Cir. 2006) (In a criminal deportation proceeding for illegal reentry, an alien needs an egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment to warrant suppression of his immigration file or its contents). See also United States v. Navarro-Diaz, 420 F.3d 581, 587 (6th Cir. 2005) (in an 8 U.S.C. § 1326 proceeding, the alien’s motion to suppress his identity was denied in the absence of an “egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment”).  On one extreme, the District Court of Massachusetts has completely done away with the exception, at least in the context of a criminal deportation proceeding, under the rationale that the exclusionary rule never operates to suppress a person’s identity because the exception language in Lopez-Mendoza is mere dicta. See U.S. v. Sandoval-Vasquez, 519 F. Supp. 2d 198, 300 (D. Mass. 2007) (In addressing the issue of whether evidence of defendant alien’s identity is suppressible because of a search and seizure under a wrongful warrant, the court reasoned that the “egregious violation” statement in Lopez-Mendoza had no application to the Court’s earlier ruling that the exclusionary rule never operates to suppress a person’s identity).

If you have a case (at any stage the proceedings) raising a suppression issues, would like to contact the authors or the AILA Amicus Committee, please send an email to amicus@aila.org