Matter of Compean
Attorney General of the United States
25 I. & N. Dec. 1 (2009)
Enrique Salas Compean (plaintiff), ordered removed after unlawfully entering the U.S. in 1989, sought to reopen his removal case for ineffective assistance of counsel; two similar cases, Matter of Bangaly and Matter of J.E.C., were also pending. In January 2009, Attorney General Mukasey denied reopening all three cases and vacated the longstanding framework from Matter of Lozada for evaluating such ineffective-assistance claims, replacing it with a new framework that conflicted with the Lozada-based approach federal appellate courts had long applied. Five months later, incoming Attorney General Eric Holder reexamined that new framework.
Whether the Matter of Lozada framework, used to determine whether an alien may reopen his case on the ground of ineffective assistance of counsel, should be applied to all pending and future motions to reopen such cases until the framework may be thoroughly examined.