Samaniego

MEMORANDUM *

On October 31, 2008, the district court rejected Daniel Samaniego-Chacon’s (“Sa-maniego”) plea of guilty to one count of harboring an illegal alien for the purpose of commercial gain. Samaniego petitions this Court for a writ of mandamus that would reverse that decision, require the district court to conduct a renewed plea hearing, and assign his case to a different district court judge. Although the district court may have erred in rejecting Saman-iego’s plea prematurely, its decision was not “clearly erroneous as a matter of law.” See Cordoza v. Pac. States Steel Corp., 320 F.3d 989 , 998 (9th Cir.2003) (noting that, for purposes of evaluating a writ of mandamus, “we review the district court’s [decisions], not for an abuse of discretion, but for clear error”). We therefore decline to issue the writ of mandamus. We nonetheless urge the district court, in light of the considerations discussed below, to provide Samaniego with a second opportunity to enter a guilty plea before his trial commences.

1. A district court must accept an unconditional guilty plea if the requirements of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(b) are met. See In re Vasquez-Ramirez, 443 F.3d…