United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

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No. 12-3296

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United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Wiled Mahdi Al-Aqaili

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant

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 Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City

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 Submitted: November 19, 2013

 Filed: January 23, 2014

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Before BENTON, BEAM, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM.

Wiled Mahdi Al-Aqaili appeals the district court’s grant ofsummary judgment

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to the United States, resulting in his denaturalization. We affirm. 

The Honorable Scott O. Wright, United States District Judge for the Western 1

District of Missouri. 
Al-Aqaili is a native of Iraq and became a permanent resident of the United

States in 1996. On March 20, 2002, Al-Aqaili filed an application for naturalization

with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. During his application process, AlAqaili certified at least three times, once under oath, that he had not “knowingly

committed any crime or offense, for which [he had] not been arrested.” After making

these certifications and receiving his naturalization, Al-Aqaili pled guilty in the

United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri to knowingly

committing the crime of mail fraud between February 25, 2002 and January 14, 2003,

the time-frame relevant to his application process in which he certified he had not

committed any unlawful acts. Al-Aqaila wassubsequently convicted and sentenced. 

The United States initiated suit against Al-Aqaili to revoke his citizenship

pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a) and moved for summary judgment claiming that AlAqaili illegally procured his naturalization due to his (1) failure to possess good

moral character during the relevant statutory period and (2) willful misrepresentation

or concealment of his criminal act. The district court granted the Government’s

motion on both counts. As a result, Al-Aqaili’s admission for citizenship was

revoked and his Certificate of Naturalization was cancelled. Al-Aqaili appeals, and

we affirm. 

We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. Castillo

v. Ridge, 445 F.3d 1057, 1060 (8th Cir. 2006). “Summary judgment is proper if the

evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, indicates that

there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment

as a matter of law.” Id. The Government has the burden in a denaturalization

proceeding to present “clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence” that the

citizenship was illegally procured. United States v. Hansl, 439 F.3d 850, 853 (8th

Cir. 2006). Citizenship is illegally procured if an applicant failed to comply with the

statutory requirements for naturalization. See Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S.

490, 506 (1981). 

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One statutory requirement for naturalization is that the applicant must have

possessed good moral character during the five-year period prior to the application

for naturalization and maintains such character even up to the administration of the

oath. 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a); see also 8 C.F.R. § 316.10(a)(1). An applicant lacks good

moral character if the applicant “[c]ommitted unlawful acts that adversely reflect

upon the applicant’s moral character” during the relevant statutory period. 8 C.F.R.

§ 316.10(b)(3)(iii). Acts involving moral turpitude, such as a crime in which fraud

is an ingredient, see Izedonmwen v. I.N.S., 37 F.3d 416, 417 (8th Cir. 1994),

adversely reflect upon the applicant’s moral character, see 8 C.F.R. § 316.10(b)(2)(i). 

Al-Aqaili primarily argues that during the time of his application and

naturalization process, he was unaware that he had committed a crime and, thus, did

not lack good moral character, present false testimony, or misrepresent or conceal his

criminal act. We disagree. 

The evidence is clear that Al-Aqaili failed to possess good moral character

during the relevant statutory period. In his federal criminal case, Al-Aqaili entered

a plea agreement in which he admitted to knowingly committing the crime of mail

fraud, a crime Al-Aqaili admits began approximately one month prior to his

application for naturalization and continued while his application was pending. 

Accordingly, Al-Aqaili committed the crime during the period in which he was

required to possess good moral character, and it is of no consequence that his

conviction occurred after he was already naturalized. See United States v.

Jean-Baptiste, 395 F.3d 1190, 1191 (11th Cir. 2005) (holding that “a naturalized

citizen who committed certain unlawful acts during the statutory period prior to

taking the oath of allegiance but for which he was indicted, arrested and convicted

after naturalization stands to lose his precious acquisition for lack of good moral

character”). Moreover, Al-Aqaili’s admission that he knowingly committed the crime

collaterally estops himfromrelitigating the issue of whether he knew his conduct was

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illegal. See id. at 1194; see also United States v. Akamo, 515 F. App’x 248, 249 (5th

Cir. 2012) (unpublished per curiam); United States v. Suarez, 664 F.3d 655, 663 (7th

Cir. 2011).

Because mail fraud without question contains the element of fraud and, thus,

is a crime involving moral turpitude, Al-Aqaili’s commission of mail fraud during the

relevant statutory period of his naturalization process demonstrates that he lacked

good moral character and wastherefore ineligible for naturalization. Thus, Al-Aqaili

illegally procured his naturalization.2

For these reasons, we affirm the judgment of the district court. 

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Having concluded that Al-Aqaili was not eligible for naturalization due to his

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lack of good moral character, we need not address the other grounds for revocation

discussed by the district court, i.e., whether Al-Aqaili made false statements under

oath or whether he willfully concealed or misrepresented his criminal acts. 

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