United States v. Moreno
| Decision Date | 03 July 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 12–1460.,12–1460. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America v. Claudia Lorena Marquez MORENO, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
David J. Cattie, Esquire (Argued), The Cattie Law Firm, P.C., St. Thomas, USVI, for Appellant.
Ronald W. Sharpe, Esquire, United States Attorney for the District of the Virgin Islands, Kelly B. Lake, Esquire (Argued), Assistant United States Attorney, United States Courthouse, St. Thomas, USVI, for Appellee.
Before: SMITH, HARDIMAN and ROTH, Circuit Judges.
Claudia Marquez Moreno appeals her conviction for falsely and willfully representing herself as a United States citizen in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 911. Her principal argument is that her validly issued passport constitutes conclusive proof of U.S. citizenship under 22 U.S.C. § 2705. For this reason, she alleges that the government failed to prove lack of citizenship and that the District Court erred in denying her motion for acquittal. Because we hold that, under the language of 22 U.S.C. § 2705, a passport constitutes conclusive proof of citizenship only if the passport was issued to a U.S. citizen, we will affirm the District Court's judgment.
Moreno was born in Mexico in 1971. She was adopted by a U.S. citizen when she was nine years old. In 1981, New Mexico issued her a certificate of live birth indicating that her place of birth was Mexico. In 1994, Moreno was convicted of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. In 1998, she was convicted of false imprisonment. In 2006, she was deported to Mexico, after an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Fifth Circuit found that she was not a U.S. citizen. Moreno–Marquez v. Gonzales, 455 F.3d 548, 560 (5th Cir.2006). Although she was prohibited from reentering the United States without permission, she returned to the United States in 2007.
In 2007, Moreno applied to the State Department for a passport, listing her place of birth as New Mexico. The State Department issued Moreno a valid passport. In 2008, Moreno's passport was confiscated by United States Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas. However, it was never revoked. In 2010, she was placed into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody pending deportation, but she was released pending further investigation and action by the State Department when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials discovered that she had been issued a valid passport.
In March 2011, before taking a trip to St. Thomas, Moreno contacted a DHS official to determine whether she was a U.S. citizen. She was told that she was not a citizen. On March 16, 2011, when she arrived in St. Thomas after taking a cruise to a neighboring island, she was asked by an immigration officer about her citizenship. She responded that she was a U.S. citizen and presented her New Mexico driver's license. The officer contacted a DHS agent who then interviewed Moreno. When he asked her about her citizenship, she responded that she was a U.S. citizen and presented a certificate of live birth from the state of New Mexico, a New Mexico driver's license, and a copy of her U.S. passport.
Moreno was arrested and indicted for falsely representing herself to be a U.S. citizen, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 911, which states: “[w]hoever falsely and willfully represents himself to be a citizen of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.” 18 U.S.C. § 911. As the District Court instructed the jury at the trial, the three elements of a § 911 violation are (1) that the defendant knowingly and falsely represented herself to be a United States citizen, (2) that she was not a citizen at the time of her representation, and (3) that she made the false representation willfully.
At 7 p.m. the day before trial, the government disclosed two documents to Moreno: (1) a DHS report describing an investigation concluding that Moreno's passport was valid but recommending further investigation into her citizenship, and (2) a DHS report stating that Moreno should be released into the United States and that her deportation should be stayed until the State Department revoked her passport. Moreno did not request a continuance, even though one was offered by the District Court. The District Court did not admit either document into evidence and rejected Moreno's claim of a Brady violation on the grounds that the information in the reports did not contain exculpatory information and that the same information had been previously disclosed.
During the trial, Moreno also sought to introduce her FBI criminal history report, which listed her citizenship as “United States,” and an accompanying FOIA letter. The District Court, however, denied her motion on the grounds that under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 the evidence was cumulative and could confuse the jury.
Moreno's principal defense was that she had been issued a valid U.S. passport and that the passport constituted conclusive evidence of citizenship. The government conceded that the passport had never been revoked. Nevertheless, the government argued to the District Court and the jury that the passport was “issued in error.” Moreno objected to this argument on the grounds that the government impermissibly took inconsistent positions as to the passport's status.
Moreno requested that the District Court instruct the jury that a passport “is conclusive evidence of U.S. citizenship.” The District Court refused to issue this instruction. Moreno then filed a Rule 29 motion for acquittal, which the District Court also denied. Moreno was convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. § 911 and was sentenced to twenty-nine months imprisonment. This appeal followed.
Moreno argues on appeal that (1) the District Court should have granted her motion for acquittal because, under 22 U.S.C. § 2705, her validly issued passport constituted conclusive proof of citizenship and (2) the District Court should have instructed the jury that her passport was conclusive proof of citizenship. We hold that a passport constitutes conclusive proof of citizenship under 22 U.S.C. § 2705 only if it has been issued to a U.S. citizen. For that reason, the District Court did not err in denying Moreno's Rule 29 motion for acquittal or in refusing to adopt Moreno's proposed jury instruction.
We exercise plenary review over the denial of a motion for acquittal. United States v. Bobb, 471 F.3d 491, 494 (3d Cir.2006). However, we “review the record in the light more favorable to the prosecution to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt based on the available evidence.” Id.
Moreno argues that her U.S. passport constituted conclusive proof of her U.S. citizenship under 22 U.S.C. § 2705 and that therefore the government failed to prove lack of citizenship, a necessary element of a § 911 violation. 22 U.S.C. § 2705 provides:
The following documents shall have the same force and effect as proof of United States citizenship as certificates of naturalization or of citizenship issued by the Attorney General or by a court having naturalization jurisdiction: (1) A passport, during its period of validity (if such period is the maximum period authorized by law), issued by the Secretary of State to a citizen of the United States....
22 U.S.C. § 2705.
The text of 22 U.S.C. § 2705 does not permit Moreno's interpretation. In any case involving statutory interpretation, we must begin with the statutory text. See United States v. Gonzales, 520 U.S. 1, 4, 117 S.Ct. 1032, 137 L.Ed.2d 132 (1997). “[W]hen the statute's language is plain, the sole function of the courts—at least where the disposition required by the test is not absurd—is to enforce it according to its terms.” Lamie v. U.S. Trustee, 540 U.S. 526, 534, 124 S.Ct. 1023, 157 L.Ed.2d 1024 (2004) (citations omitted). “An interpretation is absurd when it defies rationality or renders the statute nonsensical and superfluous.” United States v. Fontaine, 697 F.3d 221, 228 (3d Cir.2012) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). 2
By its text, § 2705 provides that a passport will serve as conclusive proof of citizenship only if it was “issued by the Secretary of State to a citizen of the United States.” 22 U.S.C. § 2705 (emphasis added). Under the plain meaning of the statute, a passport is proof of citizenship only if its holder was actually a citizen of the United States when the passport was issued. Under the language of the statute, the logical premise needed to establish conclusive proof of citizenship consists of two independent conditions: (1) having a valid passport and (2) being a U.S. citizen. The second condition is not necessarily satisfied when the first condition is satisfied. For example, the Secretary of State issues passports not only to U.S. citizens but also to U.S. nationals. See22 C.F.R. § 50.4 (); see also8 U.S.C. § 1101(22) ().
Here, Moreno satisfies the first condition but not the second: she has a valid U.S. passport but is not a U.S. citizen—and was not one at the time the passport was issued. As a result, this textual interpretation of the statute leads to the conclusion that the District Court properly denied Moreno's Rule 29 motion for acquittal because, under § 2705, a valid U.S. passport serves as conclusive proof of U.S. citizenship only if the passport was issued to a U.S. citizen, which Moreno is not.
This is an issue of first impression in the Third Circuit. Moreno argues that other courts that have interpreted § 2705 as establishing that a valid passport is conclusive proof of U.S. citizenship....
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