United States Sixth Circuit

Denial of petitioner's application for a waiver of inadmissibility and an order of removal is affirmed where: 1) section 321 of IIRIRA applied retroactively to petitioner's plea of guilty to aggravated assault in June of 1996 and, as a result, rendered it an aggravated-felony conviction for immigration purposes, effective as of the date of his plea; 2) he was therefore not eligible for INA section 212(c) relief; and 3) as petitioner had no expectation of section 212(c) relief at the time he pled guilty, the court had no reason to decide whether his conviction has a statutory counterpart in section 212(a).

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/29/2007
• Published 10/29/2007

Judges

• Before:  BATCHELDER and GILMAN, Circuit Judges;  STAFFORD, District Judge.

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  James W. Chin, James Chin Law Office, Cleveland, Ohio, for Petitioner.  Thomas H. Dupree, Jr., United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.   ON BRIEF:  James W. Chin, James Chin Law Office, Cleveland, Ohio, for Petitioner.  Jennifer Keeney, Michelle Gorden Latour, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Respondent.