United States Second Circuit

Summary judgment for defendants, and denial of plaintiff's application for naturalization based on a 1993 conviction to smuggle aliens, are affirmed as: 1) the amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act that expanded the class of aggravated felonies to include defendant's offense apply retroactively; 2) defendant is, therefore, statutorily precluded from establishing good moral character for the purposes of the INA; 3) defendant's waiver of deportation does not remove his conviction from consideration in subsequent immigration proceedings; and 4) defendant received the hearing he was entitled to under 8 U.S.C. section 1421(c).

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/20/2006
• Published 09/20/2006

Judges

• PER CURIAM., Before:  STRAUB, POOLER, and SACK, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Michael P. DiRaimondo, (Marialaina L. Masi;  Mary Elizabeth Delli-Pizzi, of counsel) DiRaimondo & Masi LLP, Melville, N.Y., for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• F. James Loprest, Jr., Special Assistant United States Attorney, (Michael J. Garcia, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on the brief;  Kathy S. Marks, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel) New York, N.Y., for Defendants-Appellees.