In a major setback for the Obama Administration’s practice of imprisoning entire migrant families, a Texas court decided that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services issued licenses to two facilities in violation of state law. Grassroots Leadership, Inc. v. Texas Dept. of Family and Protective Services, No. D-1-GN-15-004336 slip op. (Tx. Dist. Ct. Dec. 2, 2016). Advocates challenged the legality of the state licensing structure under which two private prison corporations, GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America (now known as CoreCivic), operated secure facilities on [...]
Is Texas going to make it harder for migrants to receive effective assistance of counsel?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), holding that the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel obligates criminal defense attorneys to inform migrant clients about the immigration consequences of conviction continues to resonate in the state courts. Just last month the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued two decisions gutting Padilla’s applicability in that state (see my analysis of those decisions here). Now, it seems, Texas may be preparing to follow Wisconsin’s lead. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal [...]
TX Appellate Ct: When is deportation consequence “truly clear” for Padilla?
By Jorge G. Aristotelidis In 1997, Isabel Rodriguez Campos, a legal permanent resident (LPR), was arrested for misdemeanor theft (involving $50.00-$500.00), and for prostitution, both classified as Class B misdemeanors in Texas. She soon met her court appointed counsel who, aware of her immigration status, recommended that she plead guilty to both offenses, and received a probated sentence that was later revoked to a term of 60 days in jail. Years later, Ms. Rodriguez discovered that as a result of her two convictions, she is deportable, albeit with the possibility of discretionary relief [...]
Padilla cert petition on SCOTUS conference agenda
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear a case about the contours of Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), when it meets on Friday. Longtime LPR Isabel Rodríguez is asking the Court to overturn a Texas state court’s conclusion that eligibility for cancellation of removal means her removal was not “truly clear.” Rodríguez v. Texas, No. 13-5860 (U.S.). The lower court decision, Ex Parte Rodríguez, Nos. 04-11-00038-CR, 04-11-00039-CR, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 3207 (Tex. Ct. App. April 25, 2012), stemmed from convictions for theft by check and prostitute. According to the Texas [...]
Tx Ct Crim App: Right to counsel properly waived despite not being told about deportation possibility
The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, the state’s highest criminal court, held that a person who waived his right to an attorney in a misdemeanor drug possession prosecution did not do so impermissibly despite not having been told that he might be deportable upon conviction. State v. Guerrero, No. PD-1258-12, slip op. (Tex. Crim. App. June 5, 2013) (Cochran, Keller, Price, Womack, Johnson, Keasler, Hervey, and Alcala, JJ.). Judge Cochran wrote the court’s opinion. This case presents like the picture of interior immigration enforcement in the age of crImmigration law. The defendant entered [...]
Tex Ct Crim App: Padilla not retroactive
The highest criminal court in Texas held that Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), does not apply retroactively to convictions that had become final prior to March 31, 2010, the date Padilla was announced. Ex parte De Los Reyes, No. PD-1457-11, slip op. (Tex. Crim. App. March 20, 2013) (Hervey, Keller, Price, Johnson, Keasler, Cochran, and Alcala, JJ.). Justice Hervey delivered the court’s opinion. This case involved an LPR who was convicted of theft in 1997 and again in 2004. DHS claims that theft is a crime involving moral turpitude, thus De Los Reyes is removable for having been [...]
1 client, 2 wins: Successful Padilla claims in crim & immigration courts
Taking an expansive approach to client representation, attorney Carlos M. García recently vacated a conviction that had served as the basis for removal, then headed to immigration court where he successfully moved to terminate removal proceedings. García, an attorney at García & García Attorneys at Law (this blog’s patrocinador and my brother), relied on Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), in the Texas district court, then fended off DHS’s attempt to remove his client on the basis of the “reason to believe” the client was a drug trafficker ground of removal. The state district [...]
Tex Ct App: In Padilla case, wrong about immigration law; concurrence reconsiders whether Ex Post Facto Clause applies to immigration
In a fascinating but unpublished decision, the Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth District, relied in part on an incorrect understanding of immigration law to deny a Padilla claim. Ex Parte Galvan-Herrera, No. 13-11-00380-CR, slip op. (Tex. Ct. App. April 26, 2012) (Rodriguez, Benavides, and Perkes, JJ.). Justice Rodriguez wrote the panel’s opinion; Justice Benavides wrote a separate concurrence. The bulk of the court’s decision rested on its interpretation of Texas’s habeas statute, Tex. Code Crim. P. art. 11.072, § 9(a). Specifically, the court concluded that Galvan-Herrera’s claim was a [...]