NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION No. 122,805 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee, v. JOSE ARELLANO, Appellant. MEMORANDUM OPINION Appeal from Sedgwick District Court; WILLIAM S. WOOLLEY, judge. Opinion filed September 3, 2021. Affirmed. Jacob Nowak, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant. Matt J. Maloney, assistant district attorney, Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee. Before WARNER, P.J., CLINE, J., and WALKER, S.J. PER CURIAM: Jose Arellano pleaded guilty to various offenses in April 2009, including possession of cocaine. Arellano is not a United States citizen, and a conviction for possession of cocaine is a deportable offense that also renders a person permanently ineligible for reentry into the country. Arellano attempted to withdraw his plea in 2012, but the district court denied that request. He was removed to Mexico in April 2013. In July 2019, Arellano filed a second motion to withdraw his plea in an effort to remove the impediment to his reentry into the United States. The district court denied 1 Arellano's motion, finding it was filed outside the one-year statutory timeframe for filing plea-withdrawal motions and noting that Arellano had not provided an explanation to excuse his untimely filing. Arellano appeals this decision, pointing to several efforts his wife has made between 2012 and 2019 seeking legal counsel regarding the interplay of his immigration proceedings and his conviction. While we appreciate the extent of these efforts, they do not explain the crux of the procedural barrier at issue—why Arellano did not move to withdraw his plea before the statutory timeframe for such relief expired in 2010. Thus, after carefully reviewing the record and the parties' arguments, we affirm the district court's ruling. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Following a December 2007 traffic stop, the State charged Arellano with possession of cocaine, transportation of an open container of alcohol, and failure to provide proof of liability insurance. A conviction for possession of cocaine—as a violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act—is classified as an offense requiring deportation for noncitizens. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) (2018). Such a conviction also makes a person ineligible to reenter the United States. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i) (2018). Arellano is not a United States citizen and was not otherwise authorized to be in the country. Though Arellano was already at risk for removal due to his undocumented immigration status, his attorney attempted to negotiate a plea deal that would avoid immigration consequences—but to no avail. In April 2009, Arellano pleaded guilty to all charges, apparently in the hope of expediting his case and being placed on probation to minimize the chance of notice by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When he entered into his plea agreement, he signed a form titled "Defendant's Acknowledgment of Rights and Entry of Plea," which described the rights he would 2 relinquish by entering a plea; this included a notice that a felony conviction would likely result in deportation. After Arellano entered his plea, …
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