Opinion ID: 182627
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 2003 firearms conviction

Text: On October 17, 2001, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a consensual search of Ashraf's home and car based on a tip from one of Ashraf's neighbors that Ashraf possessed firearms and ammunition. See Ashraf, No. 05 Civ. 80420, at 19-20. The agents discovered a number of firearms and several thousand rounds of ammunition. Id. at 8-9. Although nonpermanent lawful residents are prohibited from possessing firearms, Ashraf was not arrested at the time because of confusion on the part of law-enforcement officers regarding his immigration status. The INS report obtained as a result of Ashraf's May 2009 FOIA request shows that Ashraf was not taken into custody when the firearms were seized from his home because an immigration officer opined that his application for permanent residency should have been granted due to Ashraf's wife being a United States citizen. This report also shows that an immigration officer advised Ashraf around that time to refile his application for permanent residency. Ashraf claims that because the notice regarding the denial of his application for permanent residency was sent to the incorrect address in the year 2000, he did not find out that his application was denied until the FBI agents searched his home in October 2001. He submitted a new application for permanent residency approximately two weeks after the search. This application was not denied until February 2009, after Ashraf had already been indicted in the present case. While Ashraf's second application for permanent residency was pending, he was arrested and indicted in September 2002, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(B), for being a nonimmigrant alien in possession of firearms or ammunition based on the 2001 seizure of weapons and ammunition from his home and car. Ashraf, No. 05 Civ. 80420, at 2. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced by the district court for the Southern District of Florida to 78 months' imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Ashraf served the sentence for his firearms conviction at various federal prison facilities, finishing his time at a facility in Youngstown, Ohio in May 2008. His firearms conviction and sentence were upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Ashraf was denied postconviction relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Then, in January 2007, Ashraf filed a successive petition for habeas relief with the district court for the Northern District of Ohio (based on his detention at the time in Ohio), pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241, arguing that he was actually innocent because he was a legal immigrant rather than a non-immigrant alien at the time of his arrest. See Ashraf v. Tapia et al., No. 07-3700, at 2 (6th Cir. June 12, 2008) (unpublished opinion). Both the district court and this court denied his successive petition because [t]he testimony of the government agents, along with Ashraf's immigration documents, clearly showed that Ashraf had not attained permanent resident status when he was arrested and the firearms were seized, contrary to Ashraf's argument. Id. at 3. The present appeal is limited to Ashraf's conviction for his willful failure to obtain travel documents, and does not include his prior firearms conviction or the adjudication of his immigration status. But Ashraf raises these background issues in order to show that he had a good-faith basis for refusing to sign the travel documents at issue in the present case. The details surrounding his applications for permanent residency and his firearms conviction are therefore before us only insofar as they pertain to Ashraf's present appeal.