United States Fifth Circuit

In a case in which petitioner-resident alien, having pleaded guilty and served his sentence for aiding and abetting the illegal entry of an alien, sought to vacate his guilty plea in order to avoid removal in proceedings brought by DHS, denial of his petition for a writ of coram nobis is affirmed where: 1) jurisdiction to hear the petition was properly vested in the district court, not the magistrate judge who sentenced petitioner; 2) trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to advise petitioner that a guilty plea would automatically make him removable, nor did counsel affirmatively misrepresent the immigration consequences of his plea; and 3) the magistrate judge's failure to inform petitioner at his plea colloquy of the immigration consequences of a guilty plea did not make the plea involuntary.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/06/2008
• Published 11/06/2008

Judges

• PRADO, Circuit Judge:, Before REAVLEY, CLEMENT and PRADO, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• George W. Aristotelidis, Law Offices of Jorge Aristotelidis, San Antonio, TX, for Petitioner-Appellant., Renata Ann Gowie, Asst. U.S. Atty., Houston, TX, for U.S.