Ricardo Gonzalez-Sandoval v. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Under 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (a)(4)(1982), an alien lawfully admitted to this country is deportable if convicted of two crimes “not arising out of a single scheme.” In this petition for review of a deportation order, we are asked to decide whether two bank robberies occurring within two days of each other, at the same bank, and which petitioner conceived and planned at the same time, constituted crimes “arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct” for the purposes of exempting petitioner, Ricardo Gonzalez-Sandoval, from deportation under 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (a)(4). Following our decision in Wood v. Hoy, 266 F.2d 825 (9th Cir.1959), we hold that the crimes did arise out of a single scheme and we reverse the deportation order.

Ricardo Gonzalez-Sandoval is a native and citizen of Mexico and last entered the United States on September 9, 1961, as a lawful permanent resident. Gonzalez testified at his deportation hearing that at some time prior to July 21, 1980, he devised a scheme to acquire between ten and eleven thousand dollars by robbing a single bank three times. When his attorney asked him, at the hearing, why he planned three robberies, he responded, “because the tellers only…