United States v. Parrales-Guzman

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of petitioner's motion to dismiss the indictment against him for illegal reentry after conviction of a felony. Petitioner argued that 8 U.S.C. 1326(d)'s bar on collateral attacks did not attach because his 2001 removal order was void ab initio because it was based on an unconstitutionally vague statute. Petitioner had previously waived his right to appeal the removal order stemming from the 2001 felony conviction for driving while intoxicated under Texas law.Reviewing de novo, the court rejected petitioner's argument and held that petitioner failed to exhaust the administrative remedies that were available to him. The court held that petitioner's argument upends Congress's mandate that collateral review in the course of reentry prosecutions be available only in a narrow set of circumstances. Furthermore, such an argument enlarges the Supreme Court's observation that it is precisely the unavailability of effective judicial review of the administrative determination which warrants a collateral attack at a later criminal proceeding. In this case, both administrative remedies and judicial review of the removal order were available to petitioner and he chose not to pursue them. View "United States v. Parrales-Guzman" on Justia Law