Opinion ID: 987037
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: in a civil case or against the government in a

Text: criminal case, factual findings from a legally authorized investigation; and (B) neither the source of information nor other circumstances indicate a lack of trustworthiness. Fed. R. Evid. 803(8). UNITED STATES V . MORALES 15 government officials. See, e.g., Pena-Gutierrez, 222 F.3d at 1087–88 (noting that an alien’s statement to an immigration officer about his alienage was inadmissible hearsay-withinhearsay which had to be admitted under a separate exception to the hearsay rule); see also United States v. Montes-Salas, 669 F.3d 240, 253 (5th Cir. 2012) (testimony by Border Patrol agent that an alien told him that the defendant’s phone number had appeared in her phone was hearsay-withinhearsay). Here, the aliens’ statements that they were in the United States illegally do not qualify as public records under Rule 803(8), because they do not describe “activities” of the government, and the government does not argue that aliens are under a “duty to report” their immigration status. See Fed. R. Evid. 803(8)(A). Had the aliens been unavailable, their statements might have been admissible under a separate exception, such as a “statement against interest” under Rule 804(b)(3) or a “statement of personal or family history” under Rule 804(b)(4). See Olafson, 203 F.3d at 565; United States v. Winn, 767 F.2d 527, 530 (9th Cir. 1985). But because the district court concluded that the government had failed to establish that the aliens were unavailable for purposes of Rule 804, their statements are not admissible under these exceptions. See Pena-Gutierrez, 222 F.3d at 1088. Nor has the government identified any other hearsay exception under which the statements might be admitted. Accordingly, neither the biographical statements by aliens recorded by the Border Patrol agents, nor the aliens’ own admissions, qualify 16 UNITED STATES V . MORALES under an exception to the rule against hearsay. The district court abused its discretion in admitting both statements.5