VALADEZ-LOPEZ

In this appeal, we consider whether the plaintiff properly exhausted his administrative remedies under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA” or the “Act”), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346 , 2671-80, see id. § 2675(a), where the federal agencies denied the plaintiffs administrative tort claims before he amended his complaint in an ongoing civil action to name the United States as a party and allege a new cause of action under the Act. We conclude that the claims were properly exhausted, but affirm the district court’s dismissal on the alternate ground that Valadez-Lopez stated FTCA claims that fall outside the Act’s waiver of sovereign immunity. We also affirm the grant of summary judgment on ValadezLopez’s ineffective assistance of counsel claims, premised on 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 , 98 S.Ct. 2018 , 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978).

I

This case has a complicated procedural and factual history. Distilled to its essence, the salient facts are as follows: Juan Carlos Valadez-Lopez’s public defender knew that Valadez-Lopez was an undocumented immigrant, yet nonetheless advised him to plead no contest to attempted burglary in the first degree on…