MARIA MONINA RAQUENO, NEE URETA, PETITIONER,
v.
IMMIGRATION & NATURALIZATION SERVICE, RESPONDENT

5th Cir. | 1981-12-10
No. 80-3263
Before COLEMAN, REAVLEY and SAM D. JOHNSON, Circuit Judges.
663 F.2d 555 Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1981) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that an alien excluded under INA § 212(a)(20) for lacking a valid visa is not eligible for relief under INA § 241(f), even if the visa was obtained through innocent misrepresentation.


Facts & Procedural History

Maria Raqueno was found deportable for entering the U.S. without a valid immigrant visa. She sought to reopen deportation proceedings, arguing that a …

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.

Opinion of the Court
REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:

REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:

The petitioner Maria Monina Raqueno, nee Ureta, appeals from a denial by the Board of Immigration Appeals of her motion to reopen and reconsider an order of deportation entered against her on an earlier date. In the earlier deportation proceeding, Raqueno was found deportable under § 241(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), 8 U.S.C. § 1251(a)(1), on the ground that she was excludable at the time of entry as an alien not in possession of a valid immigrant visa under § 212(a)(20) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(20). We deny the petition for review.

Raqueno argues that § 241(f) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1251(f), which prevents the deportation of certain aliens who entered the United States using a visa procured by “fraud or misrepresentation,” applies to her because her immigrant visa was invalid due to her innocent misrepresentation of her marital status.1 Her argument fails as we are bound by an earlier decision of this court. As voiced in Escobar Ordonez v. INS, 526 F. 2d 969 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 938, 96 S.Ct. 2655, 49 L.Ed.2d 390 (1976), the rule of this circuit is that the use of § 212(a)(20) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(20), to exclude an alien rather than § 212(a)(19) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(19), prevents forgiveness under INA § 241(f), 8 U.S.C. § 1251(f). INA § 241(f) does not forgive aliens found ex-cludable under INA § 212(a)(20) (admission without valid visa); it does forgive aliens found excludable under INA § 212(a)(19) (procurement of visa by misrepresentation of fact). Thus, since Raqueno was not found excludable under INA § 212(a)(19), but rather under § 212(a)(20), she is not entitled to relief under § 241(f).2

Accordingly, the petition is DENIED.

. Raqueno’s mother, a resident alien, petitioned to have Raqueno, a citizen of the Philippines, admitted to the United States as the unmarried daughter “of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence.” 8 U.S.C. § 1153(a)(2). After the petition was approved, Raqueno married, received a visa, entered the United States, and in time gave birth to two children.

. We understand that the formalistic examination required by Ordonez allows the Immigration & Naturalization Service to avoid INA § 241(f) and in effect read the forgiveness provision out of the Act. Yet this panel, as noted at argument and in the text, is unable to disregard prior circuit precedent.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw