US v. Lopez-Velasquez, No. 07-30241

Illegal Reentry Prosecution

In US v. Lopez-Velasquez, No. 07-30241, a prosecution for illegal reentry, the court reversed the dismissal of the indictment where an immigration judge's (IJ) duty was limited to informing an alien of a reasonable possibility that the alien is eligible for relief at the time of the hearing, and the IJ who presided over defendant's deportation fulfilled that duty.

As the court wrote:  "The district court dismissed the indictment against Edmundo Lopez-Velasquez for illegal reentry on the ground that the immigration judge ("IJ") presiding over his deportation hearing had a duty to inform him of discretionary relief under § 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(c) (1994) (repealed 1996). Under the law as understood at the time of the hearing, Lopez-Velasquez was four years short of the mandatory seven-year domicile requirement for § 212(c) relief."

Related Resources

• Read the Ninth Circuit's Decision in US v. Lopez-Velasquez, No. 07-30241