Jaime Salvador Flores-Arellano v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

5 F.3d 360 Jaime Salvador FLORES-ARELLANO, Petitioner, v. IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, Respondent. No. 92-70129. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted July 16, 1993. Decided Sept. 15, 1993. Sonia Saldivar (law student intern argued) and Lillia S. Velasquez, San Diego, CA, for petitioner. David M. McConnell and Karen Fletcher Torstenson, Office of Immigration Litigation, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC, for respondent. Petition to Review a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Before: WOOD, Jr. * , REINHARDT, and RYMER, Circuit Judges. REINHARDT, Circuit Judge: 1 Jaime Salvador Flores-Arellano challenges the finding that he is deportable on the basis of a misdemeanor state conviction of being under the influence of amphetamine/methamphetamine. Because we conclude that section 241(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251 (a)(2)(B)(i), plainly reaches under-the-influence convictions for controlled substances other than marijuana, we deny Flores' petition for review. 2 * Flores, now 29 years old, entered the United States as a permanent resident on April 16, 1990. Although this is the official…

Jaime Salvador Flores-Arellano challenges the finding that he is deportable on the basis of a misdemeanor state conviction of being under the influence of amphetamine/methamphetamine. Because we conclude that section 241(a)(2)(B)® of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 . U.S.C. § 1251(a)(2)(B)®, plainly reaches under-the-influenee convictions for controlled substances other than marijuana, we deny Flores’ petition for review.

I

Flores, now 29 years old, entered the United States as a permanent resident on April 16,1990. Although this is the official date of his legal immigrant entry to the United States, Flores lived in this country for many years prior to 1990. All of Flores’ parents and siblings are legal permanent residents, and he has two United States citizen children.

On August 13, 1990, Flores pleaded guilty in San Diego Municipal Court to using and being under the influence of amphetamine and methamphetamine on January 8, 1989, 1 in violation of Cal.Health & Safety Code § 11550. 2 On January 20, 1991, the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) issued an order to show cause charging Flores with deportability on the basis of his under-the-influence…

specially concurring:

Even as combatting crime has become a major federal legislative initiative of yet another presidential administration, we have become increasingly aware of the unintended casualties of our decade-long “War on Drugs.” Of late, several members of the ordinarily reticent judiciary have spoken out about some of these previously-hidden costs: the loss of sentencing discretion and lengthy incarceration of first-time offenders, for example. Judges have also noted that major drug offenders can and do obtain more lenient treatment than fringe participants because only the major players can turn in their subordinates and thus provide the substantial governmental assistance that is a prerequisite to sentencing below the statutory minimum. The far less culpable bit players ordinarily have no knowledge of who their ringleaders are. In the catalog of draconian acts perpetrated in furtherance of federal efforts to eliminate illicit drug trafficking, deporting lawful resident aliens solely because of a single conviction of drug use must certainly rank high. Deportation is a drastic action indeed when applied to people here lawfully, with long-term residency and extensive…