California Penal Code Section 1016.5

Penal Code Section 1016.5 "mandates the criminal courts, before accepting a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to most crimes, to advise the defendant of the consequences a conviction may have on a person who is not a citizen of the United States." (People v. Quesada (1991) 230 Cal.App.3d 525, 528, superseded by statute as stated in People v. Totari (2003) 111 Cal.App.4th 1202, 1206-1207, fn. 5.) The statutory admonition reads: "If you are not a citizen, you are hereby advised that conviction of the offense for which you have been charged may have the consequences of deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, or denial of naturalization pursuant to the laws of the United States." ( 1016.5, subd. (a).) Section 1016.5, subdivision (b), "provides that if the court fails to give the requisite admonition and the conviction may have the consequence of defendant's deportation, exclusion from admission or denial of naturalization, 'the court, on defendant's motion, shall vacate the judgment and permit the defendant to withdraw the plea of guilty or nolo contendere, and enter a plea of not guilty.' In determining whether the statutory grounds are present, the trial court on a contested motion to withdraw a plea of guilty under this section . . . is the trier of fact and hence the judge of the credibility of the witnesses or affiants. Consequently, it must resolve conflicting factual questions and draw the resulting inferences. As is the case with most other evidentiary rulings by a trial court, we apply the substantial evidence rule on appellate review. Under this rule, we 'must view the evidence in a light most favorable to respondent and presume in support of the judgment the existence of every fact the trier could reasonably deduce from the evidence. . . . If the circumstances reasonably justify the trial court's findings, an appellate court cannot reverse merely because the circumstances might also be reasonably reconciled with a contrary finding.' " (People v. Quesada, supra, 230 Cal.App.3d at p. 533.)