Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(C)  Admissions.  The facts contained in the Form 213, Record of Deportable Alien, are not sufficient, by themselves, to sustain a charge of deportability, even in an in absentia hearing.[550]  An immigration judge cannot accept “an admission of removability from an unrepresented respondent who is . . . under 18 and is not accompanied by an attorney or legal representative, a near relative, legal guardian or friend.”[551]  However, the IJ can accept admissions of fact necessary to establish removability, after the IJ has established that the juvenile is able to understand the proceedings and the admissions are reliable.[552]  See also § 18.6, infra, for a discussion of whether juveniles may admit commission of certain offenses for inadmissibility purposes.

[550] Matter of Ponce-Hernandez, 22 I. & N. Dec. 784.  But see Matter of Gomez-Gomez, 23 I. & N. Dec. 522 (BIA 2002) (in absentia removal of juvenile upheld where Form I-213 information was taken from parent of juvenile).

[551] 8 C.F.R. § 1240.10(c).  See also Davila-Bardales v. INS, 27 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 1994); Matter of Mejina-Andino, 34 I. & N. Dec. 533 (BIA 2002).

[552] Matter of Amaya, 21 I. & N. Dec. 583 (BIA 1996).  See also Terry Coonan, Tolerating No Margin for Error: The Admissibility of Statements by Alien Minors in Deportation Proceedings, 29 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 75.