Court Opinion

ID: 9457825
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:33:54.353544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:31.344682
License: Public Domain

DAVID W. WILLIAMS, District Judge
(dissenting in part).
I concur in the opinion affirming the conviction of appellant on the conspiracy count for the reasons stated therein, However, I would reverse counts 2 through 5 charging appellant with the substantive counts of transportation of aliens [8 U.S.C. § 1324(a) (2)] for the reason that I am not satisfied that the Government sustained its burden of proving that the men in the trunk were aliens. Proof of alienage in a transportation count is an element of the offense. United States v. Mack, 112 F.2d 290, 291 (2nd Cir., 1940). For some reason the Government did not follow its usual practice of detaining one or more of the suspected aliens to testify at the trial of the accused. Instead, it deported all of them prior to the trial and relied upon the testimony of the border patrol officers who made the arrest. They merely described the occupants of the trunk as looking like Mexicans and possessing no papers entitling them to be in the United States.
It is true that a fact may be proven by circumstantial evidence (United States v. Nelson, 419 F.2d 1237 (9th Cir. 1969)) and I am mindful of the adverse inferences to be drawn from the concealment of the Mexicans in the trunk; but these matters should not be allowed to relieve the Government of furnishing the best proof available of a vital element of the offense. The production of at least one of the occupants of the trunk, and direct testimony from such person of his ancestry would have removed all doubt of the validity of proof of alienage.