Filed 10/22/21 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION ONE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THE PEOPLE, D077894 Plaintiff and Respondent, v. (Super. Ct. No. JCF18829) CARLOS ARGENIS FIGUEROA ALATORRE, Defendant and Appellant. APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Imperial County, Monica Lepe-Negrete, Judge. Reversed with directions. Richard Jay Moller, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Matthew Rodriguez, Acting Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Michael Pulos, Seth Friedman and Kathryn Kirschbaum, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. In the mid-2000s, Carlos Argenis Figueroa Alatorre was working as a car salesperson and had a second baby on the way. As sales plummeted and he found himself out of a job, he was approached by his brother-in-law, Luis, with an opportunity to make some quick cash. Although he knew Luis was involved in something unsavory, Alatorre began working for him, acting as a lookout and a driver for about two months before the United States Department of Justice closed in on Luis’s drug importation ring, arresting Alatorre along with several others at a border patrol checkpoint where agents seized over thirty kilograms of cocaine. In the wake of the arrest, Alatorre was forthcoming about his involvement. He had already been in jail for a year and a half, awaiting his trial, when he was offered a plea deal that would allow him to be released from custody with credit for time served. So in 2008, at the age of 24, he pleaded guilty to his first and only criminal charge—conspiracy to possess cocaine for sale. Alatorre did not know this conviction would render him immediately deportable. He had come to the United States from Mexico when he was just four years old, and lived here as a permanent resident. In 2011, three years after his plea, he attempted to become a naturalized citizen, which had the unintended but very predictable consequence of alerting immigration authorities to his criminal conviction. Within a few months, he was deported to Mexico. Alatorre lived in Mexicali after that, taking any available work he could find. Although his children, who are both U.S. citizens, were usually able visit him on the weekends, he was separated from life with his family— 2 not only his wife and children, but also his parents, four siblings, and dozens of nieces, nephews, and cousins—all of whom lived in the U.S. Penal Code section 1473.7, 1 which was enacted by the Legislature in 2016 and became effective on January 1, 2017, created a new avenue of postconviction relief for noncitizens who pleaded guilty to a crime without fully comprehending the immigration consequences that might follow. (Stats. 2016, ch. 739 (Assem. Bill No. 813) § 1.) Although these motions are generally timely if a petitioner is no longer in custody, they can be deemed untimely if not brought “with reasonable diligence.” (§ 1473.7, subd. (b).) In early 2020, Alatorre filed a motion to …
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals