The US Supreme Court Monday said it would address the issue of retroactively applying a 2010 decision that immigrants have the right to be told if a guilty plea may lead to deportation.
The top US court said it would take up the appeal of Roselva Chaidez, a 56-year-old Mexican national who had been living legally in the United States, with three US children and two US grandchildren, and faced deportation proceedings over a guilty plea for a fraud conviction years earlier.
She had pleaded guilty to making false statements to her auto insurance provider in 2003, and with fraud involving more than $10,000 — constituting a felony — was liable for deportation, despite not being told of that risk.
Chaidez later insisted if she had known of the immigration consequences “she would not have pleaded guilty under these circumstances.”
The Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling Padilla v. Kentucky noted “deportation is a particularly harsh sentences” and justices Monday said they would weigh if the ruling on defense attorneys advising non-citizen clients about deportation risks could be applied for the years before their decision.
The Court will hear arguments in the appeal, which the US and Mexican government have urged the justices to examine, at the start of their next session later in the year.
[The US Supreme Court photo via AFP / Mark Wilson]