Muñoz v. Garland
| Docket Number | 21-70431 |
| Decision Date | 26 June 2023 |
| Parties | Efraín Ramírez MUÑOZ, Petitioner, v. Merrick B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals, Agency No. XXXX-XX6-571
Marco A. Jimenez (argued), Jimenez Law Office, Riverside, California, for Petitioner.
Sharon M. Clay (argued), Trial Attorney; Nancy Friedman, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation; Brian Boynton, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division; United States Department
of Justice; Washington, D.C.; for Respondent.
Before: Jacqueline H. Nguyen and Jennifer Sung, Circuit Judges, and Joseph F. Bataillon,* District Judge.
Efraín Ramírez Muñoz ("Ramírez"), a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of the denial of his application to adjust his immigration status to lawful permanent resident while in removal proceedings. During two prior arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol, Ramírez falsely presented himself as a U.S. citizen. Based on these incidents, the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") found that Ramírez was barred from adjusting status under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I), which renders inadmissible "[a]ny alien who falsely represents, or has falsely represented, himself or herself to be a citizen of the United States for any purpose or benefit under . . . Federal or State law."
We must decide whether Ramírez's conduct—lying to local authorities about U.S. citizenship—was for a "purpose or benefit under" a particular law. The BIA, relying on its Richmond decision, concluded that Ramírez lied about his citizenship "for the purpose of avoiding removal proceedings." See In re Richmond, 26 I. & N. Dec. 779, 788 (B.I.A. 2016) (). The BIA's interpretation of § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I) is untenable. We agree with our sister circuit that "the BIA's construction of the 'purpose or benefit' language [is] . . . 'unmoored from the purposes and concerns' of the statute." Castro v. Att'y Gen., 671 F.3d 356, 370 (3d Cir. 2012) (quoting Judulang v. Holder, 565 U.S. 42, 64, 132 S.Ct. 476, 181 L.Ed.2d 449 (2011)).
A purpose or benefit under a law means a purpose or benefit in accordance with that law. Acting for "any purpose or benefit under" a law precludes acting to evade the law's operation. Because the BIA failed to identify any statute that Ramírez sought to invoke through his false claims of U.S. citizenship, we grant the petition and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Ramírez is a native and citizen of Mexico. In 1997, he was admitted to the United States on a six-month nonimmigrant visa and never left. After a couple of years, Ramírez acquired a U.S. birth certificate belonging to David Arthur Vargas, which he used to obtain a driver's license in Vargas's name.
Ramírez twice used Vargas's name when seeking employment—at a cabinet manufacturer in California and a slaughterhouse in Iowa. In addition, at issue here, he used Vargas's name during two arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol.1
During his first arrest, in California in 2002, Ramírez used Vargas's name throughout the prosecution because he feared deportation. During his second arrest, in Nebraska in 2011, Ramírez again identified himself as Vargas and presented the corresponding driver's license to local law enforcement. To avoid deportation, Ramírez presented a copy of Vargas's birth certificate and claimed that he was a U.S. citizen.2
Although the Nebraska criminal charges were later dismissed, local authorities transferred Ramírez to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") about 15 days after his arrest. While Ramírez was in ICE custody, the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") commenced removal proceedings, charging Ramírez with overstaying his visa in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B).
Ramírez sought adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident after one of his sons acquired U.S. citizenship. The immigration judge ("IJ") denied the application, finding that Ramírez made a false claim of U.S. citizenship under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I).
Applying Richmond, the IJ determined that Ramírez made a false claim of citizenship in two ways—to "avoid the negative legal consequences of removal proceedings" after being arrested and to obtain private employment. The BIA affirmed only the first of these findings.3
We have jurisdiction to review the BIA's legal conclusions under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(D), and we review them de novo. See Rivera Vega v. Garland, 39 F.4th 1146, 1152 (9th Cir. 2022).
The Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA") provides that "[a]ny alien who falsely represents, or has falsely represented, himself or herself to be a citizen of the United States for any purpose or benefit under [the INA] (including [8 U.S.C. § 1324a]) or any other Federal or State law is inadmissible." 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I). Stated more succinctly, this provision bars the admission of someone who has falsely claimed U.S. citizenship for any purpose or benefit under federal or state law.
In Richmond, the BIA held that the noncitizen must have "the 'subjective intent' to obtain a 'purpose or benefit' " under the law. Richmond, 26 I. & N. Dec. at 784. Ramírez concedes that his "subjective intent . . . in both arrest[s] was to avoid being removed from the United States." Such an intent, however, is not "for any purpose or benefit under . . . Federal or State law." 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I).
An initial question is what deference, if any, we owe the BIA's Richmond decision. In Diaz-Jimenez, we interpreted § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I) without mentioning Richmond. Normally, however, "[w]e afford Chevron deference to published decisions of the BIA that interpret the INA." Bogle v. Garland, 21 F.4th 637, 646 (9th Cir. 2021); see Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). Thus, "[i]f Congress has not spoken to the particular issue or the statute is ambiguous, and if the BIA's interpretation is reasonable, we will accept that interpretation, even if it differs from what we believe to be the best interpretation." Bogle, 21 F.4th at 646.
The key interpretive question here is what it means for a purpose or benefit to be "under" federal or state law. "[W]ords like 'under' . . . can have a variety of meanings," so "[c]ontext is especially important" when interpreting them. Diaz-Jimenez, 902 F.3d at 960.
The BIA "interpret[ed] the phrase 'under [the INA] . . . or any other Federal or State law' . . . to mean that a false claim must be made to achieve a purpose or obtain a benefit that is governed by one of these laws." Richmond, 26 I. & N. Dec. at 784 (). But "governed by" doesn't entirely make sense in this context. To govern means to control. See Govern, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/govern. While laws can certainly govern benefits by controlling who gets them, laws cannot similarly "govern" purposes—the Constitution prohibits that. See, e.g., Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, 714, 97 S.Ct. 1428, 51 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977) ().
The root of this linguistic awkwardness is the BIA's differential treatment of "purpose" and "benefit." Both words are modified by "under . . . any . . . law," so "under" should relate to them in the same way. See District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 587, 128 S.Ct. 2783, 171 L.Ed.2d 637 (2008). Yet the BIA's interpretation looks to the purpose of the noncitizen and the benefit of the law. The BIA thus bestows "under" with "two different meanings at once," id., as if the statute read: "for any purpose of the alien related to any law or any benefit provided by any law." That is "incoherent." Id. To be consistent with the statutory text, both the "purpose" and the "benefit" must be of the law. The BIA's differential treatment of "purpose" and "benefit" is also unnecessary. The preposition "for" that precedes "any purpose or benefit" already conveys that the noncitizen has a purpose in making the false statement.
Moreover, the BIA's interpretation of "under" is unreasonably broad. In Richmond, the BIA acknowledged that to avoid surplusage, § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I)'s limiting provisions "cannot be read so broadly that [they fail] to exclude anything." 26 I. & N. Dec. at 784-85 (citing Richmond v. Holder, 714 F.3d 725, 729 (2d Cir. 2013)); see Nielsen v. Preap, — U.S. —, 139 S. Ct. 954, 969, 203 L.Ed.2d 333 (2019) (). Yet the agency's construction produces exactly that result.
In the BIA's view, lying about one's citizenship with a purpose of "avoiding removal proceedings" satisfies § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I) regardless of whether the lie's recipient has a legal obligation to obtain citizenship information and report suspected undocumented persons to the immigration authorities. Richmond, 26 I. & N. Dec. at 789. Under that construction, the statute would apply when an individual lies about his citizenship not just to the police, but to anyone at all, to minimize the risk of being detected by immigration authorities. See Castro, 671 F.3d at 368 ().
Most people have no legal...
To continue reading
Request your trial