OPINION

COCHRAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which KELLER, P.J., and PRICE, WOMACK, JOHNSON, KEASLER, HERVEY, and ALCALA, JJ., joined.

Appellee, an undocumented alien seeking to remain eligible for "cancellation of removal" from the United States,1 filed a motion to vacate his 1998 deferred-adjudication misdemeanor judgment for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. The motion alleged that appellee's guilty plea had been involuntary because it was made without an attorney giving appellee advice regarding deportation. After hearing from appellee's current counsel, the trial judge granted the motion.

The court of appeals affirmed, pointing to "evidence" that appellee did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his right to counsel.2 We granted the State Prosecuting Attorney's (SPA's) petition to answer two questions: First, could counsel's statements be considered "evidence"? Second, was appellee's 1998 waiver of counsel constitutionally invalid because he was not informed of the possible deportation consequences of his plea?3 After a brief note on the nature of the pleading filed here, we answer both questions no. We therefore reverse the court of appeals and reinstate the trial court's original judgment.

I.

Appellee entered the United States illegally in 1992, as a twelve-year-old child, by wading across the Rio Grande River. When he was a junior in high school, he was caught with 1.9 grams of marijuana,4 and charged with possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. He waived his right to counsel and pled guilty to that charge before Judge Homero Garza. He received deferred-adjudication community supervision for 180 days, which he successfully completed in March, 2000.

On June 10, 2009, appellee was stopped by the La Feria Police Department for traffic violations. Appellee "stated that he was a native and citizen of Mexico and admitted he did not have Immigration documents, which would allow him to enter or remain in the United States." Because he was an undocumented alien, the federal government initiated deportation proceedings.

Two years later, appellee filed a motion to vacate the 1998 misdemeanor judgment on the ground that he was neither represented by counsel who would have advised him of the consequences of his plea as a non-U.S. citizen, nor admonished by the trial judge of those consequences. At the hearing on appellee's motion, his counsel stated that appellee is now facing deportation because of his plea. The trial judge recalled the procedures that were followed in his own court (not the court in which appellee pled guilty) during the 1998 time period: "we would line up up to 100 defendants and ... would sign them up without an attorney."5 The State pointed to the signed waiver of counsel, and appellee's counsel responded, "Yes, your Honor, but they didn't even bother to ask him about his immigration status and like I said, Mr. Guerrero is here if the Court would like to hear from him on this matter." The trial judge stated, "No, that's all right," and granted appellee's motion.

A second hearing was held on the State's motion to reconsider in which the State pointed out that, although appellee's pleading was titled "Motion to Vacate Judgment," it was actually a collateral attack on the 1998 judgment and did not comply with the requirements of Article 11.072. The State then responded to the merits of the application, noting: (1) appellee validly waived his right to counsel; (2) the offense to which appellee pled was not a deportable offense; (3) appellee's pending deportation is based on his illegal entry, not his plea; and (4) appellee was not entitled to admonishments from the court since his plea was to a misdemeanor offense.

Appellee's counsel responded,

The trial judge adopted appellee's proposed factual findings6 and conclusions, and signed an order vacating the 1998 judgment. There were six conclusions of law, including:

3. Defendant should have been provided counsel and admonished as to the consequences of his plea on September 10, 1998 in order to allow Defendant to make a decision based on proper legal advice and court admonishments.

6. The facts of this case establish without a doubt that Defendant, Marcelino Guerrero, was never properly admonished about the consequences of his plea and clearly establishes harm to Defendant resulting in his possible deportation and exclusion from this country where he has resided for eighteen (18) years.

The State appealed, but the court of appeals upheld the trial judge, finding that he did not err in considering counsel's statements as evidence because the State did not object to them7 and holding that those statements supported the trial judge's conclusion that appellee did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his right to counsel.8

II.

Article 11.072 is "the exclusive means by which the district courts may exercise their original habeas jurisdiction under Article V, Section 8, of the Texas Constitution in cases involving an individual who is either serving a term of community supervision or who has completed a term of community supervision."9 Collateral attacks brought by a person who has been granted community supervision must be brought in accordance with the statutory procedures set out in Chapter 11 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.10

In a collateral attack on the validity of a guilty plea based on the denial of counsel, the accused must prove that his waiver of counsel was not voluntary, knowing, and intelligent.11 A waiver of counsel is "intelligent when the defendant `knows what he is doing and his choice is made with eyes open.'"12 The Supreme Court has not, however, "prescribed any formula or script to be read to a defendant who states that he elects to proceed without counsel."13 Rather, "[t]he information a defendant must possess in order to make an intelligent election ... will depend on a range of case-specific factors, including the defendant's education or sophistication, the complex or easily grasped nature of the charge, and the stage of the proceeding."14

When a person attacks the validity of his prior guilty plea as that plea is reflected in the written judgment, he bears the burden of defeating the normal presumption that recitals in the written judgment are correct.15 Those written recitals "are binding in the absence of direct proof of their falsity."16

In an Article 11.072 habeas proceeding, the trial judge is the sole finder of fact.17 The highly deferential Guzman standard of review controls in such cases,18 and under this standard, the appellate court affords almost total deference to a trial court's factual findings when supported by the record, especially when those findings are based upon credibility and demeanor.19

An applicant's live, sworn testimony is a sufficient basis for upholding a decision to grant relief in an Article 11.072 habeas proceeding because the trial judge may believe any or all of a witness's testimony.20 Furthermore, reviewing courts will defer to a trial judge's factual findings that are supported by the record even when no witnesses testify and all of the evidence is submitted through affidavits, depositions, or interrogatories.21 But in all habeas cases, sworn pleadings are an inadequate basis upon which to grant relief,22 and matters alleged in the application that are not admitted by the State are considered denied.23

III.

Appellee has not met his burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, the facts that would entitle him to relief. Counsel did not file a proper habeas application under Article 11.072. Counsel's statements were not competent evidence. But even if they were, those statements do not prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that appellee was improperly denied the right to counsel before pleading guilty.

A. Appellee's "Motion to Vacate" raised the risk that the trial or appellate court would fail to recognize that he intended a "functional writ of habeas corpus."

Appellee filed a motion to vacate judgment, but there is no such thing in Texas criminal law. The closest thing — a "motion in arrest of judgment" — must be filed within thirty days of sentencing.24 The parties litigated this motion as if it were an application for a writ of habeas corpus under Article 11.072.25 If "an application is presented in compliance with the statutory procedural requirements fixed by the Legislature, the judiciary, in the exercise of its core functions, is then responsible for resolving the merits of an applicant's substantive claims."26 But if an applicant fails to follow the proper procedures outlined in Chapter 11, he risks failing to invoke the trial court's habeas-corpus jurisdiction.27

That risk was present here: The trial judge would have been justified in dismissing this motion as an untimely "motion in arrest of judgment" for lack of jurisdiction.28 This "motion to vacate" pleading was not sworn to, and it evaded the requirement of a sworn pleading for an application for habeas corpus relief. Nevertheless, the parties, the trial judge, and the court of appeals considered the pleading a cognizable writ application, and it did contain "sufficient specific facts that, if proven to be true, might entitle the applicant to relief."29 We therefore will treat appellee's motion as if it were an application for habeas corpus relief.

B. The court of appeals erred in considering counsel's unsworn statements as competent evidence entitling appellee to relief.

Appellee did not present the trial court with either a sworn pleading or sworn testimony. Appellee's motion did not contain affidavits, associated exhibits, a memorandum of law, or anything else to establish specific facts that might entitle him to relief. The only evidence in this proceeding was admitted at the State's request and included the 1998 judgment reciting that appellee "knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived counsel." That court document is presumed to be regular and its contents are presumed to be correct.30 We agree with the SPA that appellee failed to present competent evidence to show that he was improperly denied the right to counsel before pleading guilty.

Although the court of appeals found that counsel's statements on the record could be considered evidence because no objection was made,31 that rule applies only when counsel is speaking from first-hand knowledge.32 The "first-hand-knowledge" requirement is clear from the two cases that the court of appeals relied on.

In Holloway v. Arkansas,33 the Supreme Court held that counsel's repeated requests for the appointment of separate counsel, based on a conflict of interests arising from his representation of three co-defendants in the same trial, should have been granted without inquiring into confidential information. As the Court explained, the trial judge should have accepted counsel's personal knowledge and assessment of the facts underlying the conflict, in part because "attorneys are officers of the court, and when they address the judge solemnly upon a matter before the court, their declarations are virtually made under oath."34

And, in In re M.N.,35 the Texas Supreme Court held that a trial judge did not abuse his discretion in granting a motion to extend the time for filing points of appeal, based in part on counsel's explanation for the late filing because that explanation was not objected to at a hearing on the motion. Counsel's unsworn statements could be considered evidence because opposing counsel waived the oath requirement.36

In both of these cases, counsel's first-hand knowledge was the source of the "testimony." As pointed out by the SPA, "In this case, habeas counsel had no personal, first-hand knowledge of the events surrounding Appellee's plea in 1998; thus, counsel's statements were not a description of the facts as remembered from the former plea proceeding."37 Consequently, counsel's statements should not have been considered. As no evidence was introduced in support of habeas-corpus relief, appellee failed to satisfy his requisite burden of proof.

Although we could remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings because the factual record has not been sufficiently developed-in large part because the trial judge declined to hear from appellee himself — that act would be futile here. Even if we accepted counsel's statements as competent evidence, appellee is still not entitled to relief.

C. Counsel's statements did not prove, by a preponderance of evidence, that appellee's waiver of counsel was unknowing, unintelligent or involuntary.

The court of appeals pointed to the evidence that appellee (1) waived his right to counsel only after he was told that the State would give him deferred adjudication,38 and (2) entered his plea without knowing potential deportation consequences.39

First, there is nothing improper or coercive about the State's quid pro quo. Appellee had a right to waive counsel under Johnson v. Zerbst,40 and nothing prohibits a plea agreement that is conditioned on the waiver of counsel.41 The State offered him a most attractive plea bargain predicated, according to appellee, on his waiver of the right to counsel. Neither appellee nor the court of appeals have cited a single case in which the defendant's plea was constitutionally involuntary because the State offered him an especially favorable plea bargain if he waived his right to counsel. Our research has not found such a case either.

Instead, a guilty plea made after a waiver of counsel simply must be entered knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily.42 The decision to waive counsel is made "knowingly and intelligently" if it is made with a full understanding of the abandoned right to counsel.43 The decision to waive counsel is made "voluntarily" if it is uncoerced.44 Similarly, a guilty plea is "voluntary" if the plea is the expression of the defendant's own free will, not induced by threats, misrepresentations, or improper promises.45 A defendant's sworn representation that his waiver of counsel and guilty plea are knowing, intelligent, and voluntary "constitute[s] a formidable barrier in any subsequent collateral proceedings."46 In this case, the State introduced appellee's signed written waiver of presentence investigation in which appellee stated that he wished to waive his right to counsel, and nothing that appellee's counsel said at the motion hearing establishes that this waiver of counsel was either coerced or unknowing.

Second, ignorance of possible deportation consequences did not render appellee's waiver of counsel or plea of guilty unconstitutional. Appellee argues that he could not enter a guilty plea until and unless he first had counsel to explain any possible deportation consequences of his plea. There is no such blanket rule for those who are undocumented aliens. The type of warnings and procedures that are required before a waiver of the right to counsel will be recognized depend upon the purposes a lawyer could have served at the particular stage of the proceedings in question and what assistance he could provide to an accused at that stage.47

In Padilla v. Kentucky,48 the Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment requires an attorney for a criminal defendant to advise his client of the risk of "automatic" deportation as a consequence of a guilty plea.49 But Padilla announced a new rule, so it does not apply retroactively to the collateral review of a state criminal conviction that was final when the Padilla opinion was issued in 2010.50

Of course appellee does not have (and never did have) a final conviction because he was placed on deferred-adjudication community supervision and successfully completed that community supervision. Section 5(c) of Article 42.12 explicitly states,

The Texas deferred-adjudication statute was intended to allow a person in appellee's position — a teen-ager who committed a minor misdemeanor offense — to rehabilitate himself and have the charges dismissed. In the eyes of the Texas Legislature, those who have suffered a single fall from grace need not spend an entire life saddled with all of the collateral consequences a criminal "conviction" carries with it.

However, Congress is not required to recognize the same concepts of rehabilitation and forgiveness as do the many states that do not consider deferred adjudication a "conviction." And it has explicitly rejected any such notion in the context of immigration law. It is undisputed that appellee's 1998 guilty plea and successfully completed term of deferred-adjudication community supervision for possessing a small amount of marijuana is a "conviction" for purposes of federal immigration law.52

So, for purposes of Padilla and federal immigration consequences, appellee had a "final conviction" in 1998. And because Padilla does not apply retroactively, appellee is not entitled, as a matter of constitutional law, to habeas-corpus relief based on a failure by either an attorney or the trial judge to warn him about collateral deportation consequences.53

Nor was he entitled to such admonishments before his waiver of the right to counsel and his guilty plea could be recognized as intelligent and voluntary. The test for determining the validity of a guilty plea is "whether the plea represents a voluntary and intelligent choice among the alternative courses of action open to the defendant.54 Unlike Jose Padilla, appellee was an undocumented immigrant and was deportable for that reason alone, both in 1998 and today.55 Had appellee gone to trial with counsel and been acquitted he would not have been transformed into a legal resident. He could have been deported immediately after walking out of the criminal courthouse.56 The prospect of removal therefore could not reasonably have affected his decision to waive counsel and plead guilty.57

Finally, appellee relies heavily on the trial judge's failure to provide him with the statutory admonishments set out in Article 26.13 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. But, as we have repeatedly stated, that article does not apply to misdemeanor cases.58

In sum, appellee has not met his burden of defeating the presumption of a regular judgment in the record reflecting a valid waiver of counsel. That this misdemeanor judgment may bar the possibility of "cancellation of removal" is a severe consequence, but that federal immigration removal action is based upon appellee's 1992 illegal entry, not his 1998 misdemeanor plea.59 Allowing a misdemeanor judgment that is itself not a "conviction" under state law, not a ground for deportation, and not a barrier to admission,60 to operate in this manner may or may not be bad federal immigration law, but we cannot cut a swath through our state criminal law to avoid its consequences. We therefore reverse the court of appeals's opinion and reinstate the trial court's original 1998 deferred-adjudication judgment.

MEYERS, J., did not participate.