United States v. Hermelinda Valdivia, Hermelinda Valdivia v. United States

ORDER

The judgments of the district court are AFFIRMED.

Regarding Appellant’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, the district court accurately held that Valdivia was not denied effective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The counsel’s actions were not outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance, and they could well have been part of a legal strategy to preserve Appellant’s green card. The counsel’s representation of Appellant’s innocence during the plea proceeding was in full accordance with the sentiment expressed by Valdi-via herself in her subsequent trial testimony, in which she likewise asserted her innocence.

The case upon which Valdivia primarily relies, United States v. Blaylock, 20 F.3d 1458 (9th Cir.1994), is distinguishable from the instant case because the attorney in Blaylock did not communicate the plea offer to his client at all. Appellant’s other basis for her ineffective assistance of counsel claim, that her daughter was used as an interpreter by the attorney, likewise fails the Strickland calculus. It was also within the counsel’s range of professionally competent assistance to…