Summary
affirming denial of "premature" motion alleging that federal government had instituted action to revoke naturalization
Summary of this case from State v. GreenOpinion
Case No. 4D03-595
Opinion filed July 16, 2003
Appeal of order denying rule 3.850 motion from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; Ana I. Gardiner, Judge; L.T. Case No. 94-16493 CF10B.
Juan C. Enjamio and James J. Thornton of Hunton Williams, Miami, for appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Heidi L. Bettendorf, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
In 1995 appellant plead guilty to drug possession charges, adjudication was withheld, and she received two years probation which she successfully completed. After the plea, she became a naturalized citizen; however, in December, 2000, the United States filed an action to revoke appellant's naturalization based on the guilty plea.
Appellant then filed a rule 3.850 motion to vacate her plea because she was not adequately advised of immigration consequences, which the trial court held was premature under State v. Carmona, 827 So.2d 342 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002). In that case the court pointed out that the 3.850 motion improperly assumed that the government would prevail in the denaturalization proceeding and, if it did, that the government would subsequently seek to deport the defendant. We agree with Carmona and accordingly affirm without prejudice to the defendant seeking relief when the "threat of deportation," Peart v. State, 756 So.2d 42 (Fla. 1999), is more demonstrable.
STONE and HAZOURI, JJ., concur.
NOT FINAL UNTIL DISPOSITION of ANY TIMELY FILED MOTION FOR REHEARING.