Padilla Padilla v. Gonzales

I. Background

Petitioners Jose Juan Padilla-Padilla, Adela Enriquez, and Guadalupe D. Padilla-Enriquez (“the Padillas”) are a father, mother, and daughter respectively. They entered the United States without inspection in March 1989. The Padillas have two United States citizen sons (and brothers), Jose and Ale- jandro Padilla-Enriquez, who were born in the United States. Their ages are 16 and 14 respectively.

On advice of their counsel, Walter Pineda, the Padillas filed an application for asylum on January 30, 1997. The effective date of IIRIRA was approximately two months later, on April 1, 1997. The INS denied the Padillas’ asylum application on April 20, 1998. The next day, the INS initiated removal pro- ceedings under IIRIRA by serving a notice to appear (“NTA”). The NTA charged the Padillas as removable pursu- ant to the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) § 212(a)(6)(A)(i), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i), for being aliens present in the United States without having been admit- ted or paroled. On October 7, 1998, the Padillas conceded removability before an IJ and renewed their application for asylum.

On January 7, 1999, the Padillas moved to terminate removal…