ABSTRACT
Jose Padilla, a native of Honduras, came to the United States in the 1960s. Over the next several decades, he served in the US military in the Vietnam War and became a lawful permanent resident of the United States. He started a family, settled in California, and took a job as a truck driver. Forty years after entering the United States, Padilla was arrested and charged with transporting in his tractor-trailer truck about a half-ton of marijuana. Faced with a plea bargain that would impose a five-year sentence and five years probation in exchange for his guilty plea, he conferred with his attorney about the immigration consequences of accepting the deal. Padilla’s attorney assured him that taking the plea deal would not lead to deportation. 1
