Court Opinion

ID: 9499648
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:53:40.729648+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:38.081947
License: Public Domain

BEA, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring.
I agree with the majority that Lopez transported illegal aliens only within the United States and that there is insufficient evidence that Lopez otherwise aided and abetted the “brings to” offense. I do not agree that the “brings to” offense continues until the initial transporter drops off the aliens. By the plain text of the statute, the offense is completed at the border. Any further transportation may constitute transporting an illegal alien within the United States under 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii), but does not constitute “bringing to” the United States such alien.
The majority opinion is an extended exercise in statutory interpretation, on grounds and using methods which I do not endorse. But there is no point in commenting further because it is also an exercise unnecessary to decision. 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(2)(B)(ii) makes it illegal to “bring[ ] to ... the United States” an illegal alien. A person “brings to” the United States an illegal alien when he transports the alien across any border. That is the plain meaning of the statute, and I can see no reason to depart from it.