MEMORANDUM OPINION
This petition for a writ of error
coram nobis
comes nearly ten years after péti-tioner’s conviction became final. The occasion for the filing at this time is the Supreme Court’s recent decision in
Padilla v. Kentucky,
— U.S.-,
I.
On June 14, 2001, petitioner Ana L. Mendoza, a Nicaraguan citizen with legal permanent resident status, 1 appeared for a scheduled plea hearing accompanied, by her court-appointed counsel and a Spanish-English interpreter. In the course of the hearing, petitioner knowingly and voluntarily waived her right to an indictment and pled guilty to a criminal information charging her with one count of identification document fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1028(a)(1), (b)(1)(B) and (c)(3)(A) and 2. Petitioner pled guilty on this occasion pursuant to a written Plea Agreement and Statement of Facts, both of which were signed by petitioner, her court-appointed counsel, and counsel for the government.
As described in the Statement of Facts, petitioner began working for Jenni Wrenn Inc. Realtors shortly after her arrival in this country. In the course of that employment, between June 2000 and February 2001, petitioner participated in an extensive scheme designed to assist illegal *794 aliens living in states other than Virginia to obtain Virginia driver’s licenses and identification documents by means of fraud. Petitioner personally participated in the fraud by assisting with the completion of numerous false Virginia Department of Motor Vehicle forms. Significantly, petitioner knew that the aliens for whom she prepared forms did not live in Virginia; she also knew that those aliens later used the false forms to obtain Virginia driver’s licenses and identification documents to which they were not legally entitled.
A review of the plea transcript confirms that an extensive Rule 11 plea colloquy occurred prior to acceptance of petitioner’s guilty plea. In the course of this colloquy, petitioner was explicitly advised of all of the possible penalties and consequences of a plea of guilty in this case, including the risk of deportation. See Tr. of 6/14/2001 Plea Hr’g at 22 (where petitioner was specifically advised that she “will also be subject to deportation” as a result of her guilty plea). The record further reflects that petitioner confirmed, under oath in the course of the plea hearing, that she understood all of the possible consequences of her guilty plea. See id. (where petitioner replied unequivocally ‘Tes, sir,” when asked whether she “understood] ... all of th[e] ... possible consequences of [her] plea in this case”). The specific Rule 11 exchange on this issue was as follows:
THE COURT: Ms. Mendoza, it is important that you understand all of the consequences of your plea of guilty, and I am going to list those for you now. First, the maximum penalty for the offense is a maximum term of 15 years in prison.... You could also be required to pay a punitive fine of up to $250,000, [and] a special assessment. You would be required to serve three years of supervised release following any period of confinement. And if you were to violate any of the terms of the supervised release, you could be returned to prison for the full three-year term. And finally, you will also be subject to deportation. Do you understand that all of those are possible consequences of your plea in this case?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
Id. at 21-22 (emphasis added).
Petitioner later appeared for sentencing on September 7, 2001, again with her court-appointed counsel and a Spanish-English interpreter. At the hearing, petitioner was granted a two-level reduction to her offense level for acceptance of responsibility, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, thereby placing her at a total offense level of 10 and a criminal history category of I. This offense level was then further reduced by half to 5 on the government’s substantial assistance motion pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1, resulting in a guidelines range of imprisonment of zero to six months. Petitioner was ultimately sentenced to a period of two years of supervised probation, with the special conditions that she serve six weekends in jail and perform fifty hours of community service. Petitioner neither appealed her conviction nor filed a collateral attack, and she successfully served her custody sentence and two-year period of supervised probation without incident or violation.
Now, nearly ten years after her conviction, but as a result of the conviction, petitioner finds herself facing removal from the United States pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i) (providing that an alien is deportable if he or she “is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years ... after the date of admission” and “is convicted of a crime for which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed”). Given this, and in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent
*795
decision in
Padilla v. Kentucky,
— U.S. -,
II.
The Supreme Court recognized long ago that a writ of
coram nobis
is available to correct errors “of the most fundamental character” that have occurred in a criminal proceeding.
United States v. Morgan,
It is well-established that five requirements must be met to obtain
coram nobis
relief, namely (i) that petitioner’s conviction or sentence involved an error of the most fundamental character; (ii) that it is probable that a different result would have occurred if not for the error; (iii) that adverse consequences continue to flow from the conviction such that a case or controversy exists within the meaning of Article III;
2
(iv) that a more usual remedy is not presently available to correct the error; and (v) that sound reasons exist for not challenging the error earlier, such as by direct appeal or collateral attack.
See Hanan v. United States,
Here, the government correctly concedes that petitioner has satisfied three of the five
coram nobis
requirements, given that it is clear (i) that adverse consequences continue to flow from the instant conviction in the form of petitioner’s impending deportation, (ii) that a more usual remedy is not now available to correct the error as petitioner has already completed service of her sentence, and (iii) that sound reasons exist for not challenging the error earlier. Where the parties diverge is in their analysis of the two remaining requirements, namely (i) that petitioner’s conviction involved an error of the most fundamental character and (ii) that it is probable that a different result would have occurred if not for the error. Petitioner’s arguments in this regard rest entirely on
Padilla,
where the Supreme Court held definitively that “counsel must inform her client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation.”
Padilla,
III.
The principles governing the retroactive application of new rules on collateral review are well established by
Teague v. Lane,
For purposes of the
Teague
analysis, “a case announces a new rule when it breaks new ground or imposes a new obligation on the States or the Federal Government.”
Teague,
Neither the Fourth Circuit nor any other circuit has yet decided whether the rule announced in
Padilla
constitutes a “new” rule for purposes of
Teague
retroactivity. The Fourth Circuit has nonetheless noted in dicta in an unpublished decision that “nothing in the
Padilla
decision indicates
*797
that it is retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review.”
United States v. Hernandez-Monreal,
Here, a careful review of the existing precedent, combined with a survey of the legal landscape at the time petitioner’s conviction became final, points persuasively to the conclusion that the rule announced in
Padilla
constitutes a new rule for purposes of
Teague
retroactivity. To be sure, it is clear that the result in
Padilla
“was not dictated by precedent existing at the time [petitioner’s] conviction became final.”
Teague,
It is equally clear that the new rule announced in
Padilla
does not fall within one of the two narrow
Teague
exceptions necessary to warrant retroactive application. First, the rule is not a substantive rule of criminal law, as it does not “alter[ ] the range of conduct or the class of persons that the law punishes.”
Schriro v. Summerlin,
In sum, then, because the rule announced in Padilla constitutes a new rule that does not fit within one of the two narrowly-defined Teague exceptions, Padilla is not retroactive to cases on collateral review such as the one presented here. Petitioner’s motion for a writ of error co-ram nobis is thus appropriately denied on this ground alone.
IV.
Even assuming,
arguendo,
that the rule announced in
Padilla
were to apply retroactively to petitioner’s case, it is clear from a review of this record that her claim would nonetheless fail on the merits. It is well-established that a two-prong analysis applies to claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.
See Strickland v. Washington,
If a petitioner demonstrates that counsel’s performance was objectively unreasonable,
Strickland
next requires the petitioner to establish that “the deficient performance prejudiced the defense.”
Id.
at 688,
Here, the record is in dispute with respect to whether petitioner is able to *799 meet the performance prong of the Strickland analysis, namely whether court-appointed counsel properly advised petitioner about the possible immigration-related consequences of her guilty plea. 7 It is nonetheless unnecessary to resolve this dispute because regardless of whether counsel advised petitioner regarding the risk of deportation in this case, petitioner’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim flatly fails on the prejudice prong of the StHckland analysis. To be sure, petitioner was explicitly advised in the course of the Rule 11 colloquy that her guilty plea would render her subject to deportation and petitioner acknowledged, under oath, that she understood this possible consequence. See supra, p. 794. Simply put, petitioner’s sworn acknowledgement in this regard is, by itself, dispositive of the prejudice analysis. 8
In an unsuccessful attempt to avoid this result, petitioner argues that it was not constitutionally adequate that she be advised of the risk of deportation in the course of the Rule 11 plea colloquy, but instead that her counsel was required to advise her of this risk prior to the plea hearing. Not surprisingly, petitioner does not identify any precedent to support this argument and indeed, the existing authority shows otherwise.
See Brown v. United States,
No. 10 Civ.2012(BMC),
*800
In addition, the lack of
Strickland
prejudice finds further support in the overwhelming evidence of petitioner’s guilt in this case, including petitioner’s own sworn confession, extensive documentary evidence, and the testimony of multiple cooperating witnesses. Indeed, the existence of such overwhelming evidence forecloses any reasonable probability that petitioner would have proceeded to trial rather than accept the government’s plea offer.
See Strickland,
Thus, even assuming
Padilla
applied retroactively to the instant collateral attack, petitioner’s claim nonetheless fails to meet the well-settled
Strickland
ineffective assistance of counsel standard. Because of this, petitioner is unable to establish that her conviction involved an error of the most “fundamental character” so as to warrant the extraordinary remedy of
co-ram nobis
relief.
Morgan,
An appropriate order will issue.
Notes
. Records from the Immigration and Naturalization Service reflect that petitioner entered the United States as a legal permanent resident on November 22, 1999. In this regard, petitioner contends (i) that her mother immigrated to the United States approximately 20 years earlier, (ii) that her mother eventually became a naturalized citizen, and (iii) that she (petitioner) waited for years in Nicaragua to be able to join her mother legally in the United States.
. In this regard, it is also well-settled that a writ
of coram nobis
may lie where, as here, the convicted person has already completed her sentence and is no longer in custody.
See Morgan,
.
See, e.g., Doan v. United States,
.
See, e.g., Marroquin v. United States,
Civil Action No. M-10-156,
.See, e.g., United States v. Obonaga,
No. 10-CV-2951 (JS),
. In providing guidance to lower courts as to what might constitute a watershed procedural rule falling within the second
Teague
exception, the Supreme Court has referred only to the rule of
Gideon v. Wainwright,
. Petitioner, for her part, states in a sworn affidavit that counsel “did not tell me that I could or would be deported if I pled guilty.” Pet. Aff. ¶ 10. Petitioner further states that she "do[es] not recall [counsel] giving me any advice whether pleading guilty could or would affect my immigration status ... [and counsel] did not tell me anything about deportation.” Id. The government, in turn, has submitted a declaration from petitioner’s counsel providing, inter alia, that “I very likely advised Ms. Mendoza that pleading guilty to a violation of § 1028 could result in her deportation, and I am sure that I advised her to seek the expert legal advice of an immigration attorney.” Counsel’s Decl. at ¶ 6.
.
See, e.g., Blackledge v. Allison,
.See, e.g., Hernandez-Monreal,
. In addition to receiving a two-level reduction to her offense level for acceptance of responsibility, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, petitioner also received the benefit of a U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 downward departure motion in this case. These plea-related benefits ultimately resulted in her placement at an offense level of 5 and a guidelines range of imprisonment of zero to six months. Yet, assuming petitioner had been indicted, proceeded to trial, and then been convicted on the instant charge, she would have been assigned an offense level of 12 under the guidelines — which were then mandatory- — -and a guidelines range of imprisonment of 10 to 16 months. Moreover, the government contends that had petitioner proceeded to trial, it likely would have sought an indictment against her that included a more serious charge of conspiracy to encourage aliens to reside in the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(l)(A)(v)(I) and (B)(i). And, a jury conviction on such a conspiracy offense would not only have resulted in significantly higher guidelines calculations, it would also have had more serious immigration consequences, as it would have (i) constituted an aggravated felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(N), (ii) rendered petitioner presumptively deportable under 8 U.S.C. § 1228(b)(5)(c), and (iii) served as a permanent bar to reentry under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(9)(A)(ii).
