United States v. Stephanie Lois Watkins
Opinion
Stephanie Watkins, a native and citizen of Jamaica—and until her deportation in 2003, a lawful permanent resident of the United States—appeals her conviction for reentering the country illegally following deportation. On appeal, Watkins argues that her indictment should have been dismissed because her .deportation order was invalid due to a change in what crimes are considered “crimes involving moral turpitude” (CIMTs) as defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). She also argues that her fingerprints should not have been collected post indictment and that the district court improperly allowed testimony from a fingerprint analyst. The government counters that Watkins cannot collaterally attack her deportation order and that there was no error relating to the fingerprint collection or testimony. After a careful review of the briefs and with'the benefit of oral argument, we affirm.
I.
Stephanie Lois Watkins became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 1992. She has lived in the United States since she arrived here with her family when she was just 10 years old. Her two children and her parents are all United States citizens who currently reside here. All of her siblings also work and reside in the United States. In 2003, she was deported back to her home country, Jamaica, for having been convicted of Florida grand theft,
Following á March 2016 traffic stop, Watkins was arrested. The license that Watkins gave to the officer who stopped her had been flagged as suspicious. When the officer warned Watkins that she could be charged with obstruction and other charges if she was lying about her identity, she revealed her real name. After being taken to police headquarters, Watkins admitted to the officers that her license was fraudulent, that she had been deported, and that she had reentered the country illegally. She was subsequently indicted for illegally reentering the country after deportation.
Prior to a bench trial, Watkins moved to dismiss the indictment. She argued that because Florida grand theft was no longer a CIMT, her order of deportation was invalid since she had never been convicted of a CIMT, which also meant that she could not be charged with illegally reentering the United States because she should have never been deported in the first place. Before the court ruled on her motion, Watkins unsuccessfully moved the BIA to reopen her 2003 case..
In the meantime, the government moved for leave to obtain Watkins’s fingerprints in order to compare them to the fingerprints contained in her immigration documents. It argued that a fingerprint analyst would testify to show identity, namely, that Watkins was the same person who was *1224 previously removed from the United States.
After a hearing addressing both matters, the district court denied Watkins’s motion to dismiss the indictment and granted the government’s motion to obtain Watkins’s fingerprints. At the conclusion of the bench trial, Watkins was convicted and the court sentenced her to time served and one year of supervised release. She timely appealed.
II.
In a criminal context, we review collateral challenges to the validity of a deportation order de novo.
United States v. Zelaya,
Moreover, we review a district court’s evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion.
United States v. Brown,
III.
The district' court did not err in denying Watkins’s motion to dismiss her indictment. Watkins argues that she could not be charged for illegal reentry because her underlying deportation order was based on convictions for Florida grand theft, which, according to Watkins, can no longer be considered a CIMT after the Supreme Court’s issuance of
Descamps v. United States,
To collaterally attack or challenge the validity of her underlying deportation order, Watkins must show all three of the following requirements: (1) that all available administrative remedies have been exhausted; (2) that the deportation proceedings deprived her of the opportunity for judicial review; and (3) that the deportation proceedings were fundamentally unfair.
Two Supreme Court cases establish the contours of this requirement that a litigant demonstrate that she did not have the opportunity for judicial review:
Lewis v. United States,
Seven years later, the Supreme Court decided
Mendoza-Lopez,
the case that resulted in the amendment of § 1326 to include § 1326(d)’s provisions for collaterally attacking an underlying conviction. In
Mendoza-Lopez,
the Court considered whether an undocumented immigrant who is prosecuted under
Nevertheless, the Court concluded that due-process considerations require that the underlying deportation be subject to “meaningful review” before it may be used as a basis for proving an element of a § 1326 prosecution.
The main feature distinguishing Mendoza-Lopez from Lewis is the lack in Mendoza-Lopez of a meaningful opportunity for the petitioners to challenge the underlying deportation order—in that case, because the petitioners were deprived in the deportation proceedings themselves of the opportunity by the administrative judge’s obtaining of unknowing and unintelligent waivers of the rights to apply for suspension of deportation and to appeal.
Applying these lessons to Watkins’s case, we cannot say that she was similarly deprived of a meaningful opportunity for judicial review of her deportation order. True, Watkins could not have raised her
Descamps
claim within 30 days of when the final administrative decision was rendered,
see
*1226 But besides seeking that type of judicial review of a deportation order,, an undocumented immigrant may file a motion to reopen deportation proceedings and may seek judicial review of those proceedings, if dissatisfied with the BIA’s decision. 1 Under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(c).(7)(C)(i), an undocumented immigrant may file one motion to reopen proceedings, provided that he or she does so within 90 days of the entry of a final administrative order of removal.' Of course, 90 days beyond the issuance of the 2003 final administrative order would not have done much good for Watkins because, as we have noted, her claim is based on Descarwps, which did not issue until 2013.
But equitable tolling applies to the 90-day deadline to seek reopening.
Avila-Santoyo v. U.S. Att’y Gen.,
We therefore review whether Watkins sought and the BIA considered equitable tolling in Watkins’s case. The record shows that the answer to both inquiries is “yes.” To establish entitlement to equitable tolling, a petitioner must show “(1) that [s]he had been pursuing [her] rights diligently, and (2) that some extraordinary circumstance stood in [her] way.”
Avila-Santoyo,
The respondent filed the instant motion to reopen on August 1, 2016, more than 3 years after the issuance on June 20, 2013, of the decision in Descamps.... In her motion, the respondent has offered no explanation for the filing delay other than to emphasize that she, could not have moved to reopen the proceedings prior to the issuance of the decisions of the Supreme Court....
Watkins,
Watkins could have sought judicial review of this conclusion, but she did not do so, though nothing prevented her. For this reason, Watkins was not deprived of a “meaningful opportunity” for judicial review, and she may not collaterally attack her underlying deportation order in these § 1326 proceedings. 2
*1227 IV.
There was also no reversible error in the district court’s evidentiary decisions. The district court did not abuse its discretion in permitting the government to collect Watkins’s fingerprints. Neither the Fifth Amendment’s privilege against self-incrimination nor the Fourth Amendment’s privacy protections shield a defendant from being compelled to become “the source of real or physical evidence.”
Schmerber v. California,
However, the district court likely erred, albeit harmlessly, in admitting the fingerprint analyst’s expert testimony. The Federal Rules of Evidence state that expert testimony is admissible if:
(a) the expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue;
(b) the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data;
(c) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and.,
(d) the expert has reliably applied the principles and methods to the facts of the case.
Fed. R. Evid. 702. We use a three-part inquiry to assess the admissibility of expert testimony by evaluating (1) qualification, (2) reliability, and (3) helpfulness.
United States v. Frazier,
But again, the district court’s error in admitting the testimony was harmless. The fingerprint analyst’s testimony was admitted to show Watkins’s identity as the person who was previously deported, but other evidence supported that contention— testimony from á llnited' States' Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) records manager and testimony from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent. Watkins herself also , admitted that .fact repeatedly. Thus, any error was harmless.
See United States v. Henderson,
V.
Although sympathetic to Watkins’s predicament and her separation from her entire family, we must affirm the ruling of the district court. She is unable to meet the requirements that would allow for a collateral attack of her underlying deportation order. Moreover, the district court’s evidentiary rulings were either not erroneous or, if they were, the error was harmless. Thus, Watkins’s conviction is affirmed. .
AFFIRMED.
.
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc.,
. BIA may
sua sponte
reopen proceedings, but we have held that BIA’s decision to deny
sua sponte
reopening is not judicially reviewable, so we do not include that in our discussion.
See Butka v. U.S. Att'y Gen.,
. We nevertheless note that we agree with the BIA that waiting more than three years to seek to set aside her deportation order after the means to challenge that order became available does not demonstrate diligence. And Watkins did not even try to explain why she waited that long,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Stephanie Lois WATKINS, A.K.A. Stephanie Harrell, Defendant-Appellant
- Cited By
- 17 cases
- Status
- Unpublished