Court Opinion

ID: 9498095
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:08:00.506122+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:37.036442
License: Public Domain

HALL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
By implicitly incorporating an intent element into what is essentially a strict liability crime, the majority’s decision threatens to undermine a well-established line of Ninth Circuit cases holding that an alien enters the United States for the purposes of a “found in” conviction once he sets foot on U.S. soil, unless he has been under constant surveillance from the moment he crosses the border. Since Zavala-Mendez remained “free[ ] to go at large and mix with the population,” United States v. Hernandez-Herrera, 273 F.3d 1213, 1219 (9th Cir.2001) (citation omitted), for a discernible, albeit circumscribed period of time, I would affirm the district court’s denial of Zavala-Mendez’s Rule 29 motion for acquittal. I respectfully dissent.
* * * * & *
Section 1326 sets forth three separate offenses a deported alien may commit en route to the United States. A previously deported alien violates § 1326 if he “enters, attempts to enter, or is at any time found in, the United States.” 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a)(2). We have described being “found in” the United States as a “passive state, not requiring proof of a voluntary act.” United States v. Parga-Rosas, 238 F.3d 1209, 1214 (9th Cir.2001) (quoting United States v. Salazar-Robles, 207 F.3d 648, 650 (9th Cir.2000)).
However, we have also developed a legal fiction, termed the “official restraint doctrine,” which excepts from prosecution individuals who are technically present on United States soil, but nonetheless “lack the freedom to go at large and mix with the population.” Hernandez-Herrera, 273 F.3d at 1219 (citation omitted); Parga-Rosas, 238 F.3d at 1213; United States v. Gonzalez-Torres, 309 F.3d 594, 599 (9th Cir.2002). The fiction originated in a century-old case in which Chinese immigrants were tailed by officials from Canada into the United States, and thereupon seized for violation of a statute prohibiting them from being “found unlawfully” in the United States.. See Ex parte Chow Chok, 161 F. 627, 628-29 (N.D.N.Y.1908), aff'd 163 F. 1021 (2d Cir.1908). The official restraint doctrine thus provides that “mere physical presence on United States soil ... is insufficient to convict [an alien] of being found in the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Rather, the government must also establish that the alien entered the United. States free from official restraint at the time the officials discovered or apprehended him.” United States v. Ruiz-Lopez, 234 F.3d 445, 448(9th Cir.2000) (citation omitted). An alien is deemed to be officially restrained if, “after crossing the border without authorization, he is ‘deprived of [his] liberty and prevented from going at large within the United States.’ ” Hernandez-Herrera, 273 F.3d at 1218 (citation omitted).
*1122The “official restraint” doctrine is construed broadly by this court. Ruiz-Lopez, 234 F.3d at 448. Thus, “[a]n alien does not have to be in the physical custody of the authorities to be officially restrained.” Hernandez-Herrera, 273 F.3d at 1219. “The restraint may take the form of surveillance, unbeknownst to the alien.” Pacheco-Medina, 212 F.3d at 1164 (quoting Matter of Pierre, 14 I. & N. Dec. 467, 469 (BIA 1973)). Authorities may be “restraining” an alien for a lengthy period of time or a substantial distance. “If a government official has an alien under 'surveillance from the moment he passes the port of entry until the moment of arrest, the alien has not ‘entered’ the United States ... because the alien was under official restraint the whole time.” Ruiz-Lopez, 234 F.3d at 448.
The majority’s conclusion derives primarily from two decisions of sister circuits, United States v. Canals-Jimenez, 943 F.2d 1284 (11th Cir.1991), and United States v. Angeles-Mascote, 206 F.3d 529 (5th Cir.2000). In each case, a defendant deboarded an international flight at a United States airport. Both defendants voluntarily proceeded to an immigration officer and attempted to gain entry to the United States, whereupon they were apprehended and ultimately convicted for being “found in” the United States. Canals-Jimenez, 943 F.2d at 1285-86; Angeles-Mascote, 206 F.3d at 530. The Eleventh Circuit held that the “found in” language of § 1326 was inapplicable. Canals-Jimenez, 943 F.2d at 1288. “Section 1326 applies only to situations in which an alien is discovered in the United States after entering the country surreptitiously by bypassing recognized immigration ports of entry....” Id. See also Angeles-Mascote, 206 F.3d at 531 (“Any party who voluntarily approaches an INS station cannot be said to have been found or discovered in the United States.”). However, this language in Canals-Jimenez was later determined to be mere dicta. See United States v. Gay, 7 F.3d 200, 202 (11th Cir.1993) (“[T]he Canals court was merely using a surreptitious entry as the most obvious example of an illegal entry which would not be detected by immigration officials, and after which an alien who had illegally entered might be ‘found in’ the United States.... Thus, we conclude that the reference in Canals to surreptitious entry is mere dicta and is not controlling.”).
Even assuming that the Fifth Circuit’s pronouncement in Angeles-Mascóte does not suffer from the same questions regarding its continuing vitality as does the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Canals-Jimenez, its analysis is implicitly undermined by our caselaw. Like our sister circuits, we have “construe[d] [official] restraint broadly.” Ruiz-Lopez, 234 F.3d at 448. We have not, however, dispensed with the concept of “restraint” altogether. Instead, we have adhered closely to the stated requirement that, in order to constitute official restraint, an alien must be subjected to constant surveillance. See United States v. Ramos-Godinez, 273 F.3d 820, 824-25(9th Cir.2001) (“[W]hen the defendant has managed to evade detection, even for a brief period, we have held that the defendant had ‘entered’ the United States.”). Thus,, in Hernandez-Herrera, a defendant-alien was deemed to have been free from official restraint although he was being persistently tracked into an area of dense brush from which there was no hope of escape. 273 F.3d at 1216. We held that Hernandez had not been- “continuously surveilled” because “he was no longer visible” to the government official “once he entered the thick brush.” Id. at 1219. Likewise, Zavala was not visible to the Alcan agents as he drove the quarter-mile from the physical border to the Inspection Station. During that time, even if there had been “no hope of escape” from the densely forested area encompassing the *1123route between the border and Alcan,1 Za-vala was “exercising his free will within the United States” in such a way that he did not enter the country under any official restraint. Id.
Nor does the relatively short distance between the U.S.-Canadian border and the Alcan Port of Entry, and correspondingly short duration required to traverse it, militate in favor of the majority’s conclusion. In Hernandez-Herrera, there was no suggestion that the defendant was able to elude capture while in the thick brush for any significant period of time. Id. at 1216. Similarly, in United States v. Castellanos-Garcia, 270 F.3d 773 (9th Cir.2001), we determined that an alien had not been under constant surveillance because he introduced no evidence which suggested that “he was under constant observation by governmental authorities from the moment he set foot in this country until the moment of his arrest.” Id. at 775. Instead, Castellanos had been discovered serendipitously by an immigration officer, without the aid of any sensor or other detection device, approximately 100 yards from the U.S.-Mexico border. Id. at 774-75. We held that, in light of the dearth of evidence to suggest that Castellanos had been identified at the precise moment he crossed the border, the “free floating speculation that he might have been' observed the whole time” was insufficient to undercut the government’s position. Id. at 776.2 As such, Castellanos was “free to migrate into the general population for some time, and was not under constant observation during that period.” Id. at 775.
In Ramos-Godinez, we were confronted with a defendant who was observed crossing the border, but temporarily evaded surveillance when he crossed a 360-feet wide concrete canal which was obscured from the border patrol agent’s field of vision, and when' he entered an abandoned lot. 273 F.3d at 824. “[Ajlthough law enforcement was in serious pursuit of Ramos-Godinez and his companions, he was not under ‘constánt observation by governmental authorities....’” Id. at 824-25 (quoting Castellanos-Garcia, 270 F.3d at 775). During those brief periods of detachment, “Ramos-Godinez was exercising his free will.” Id. at 825. The facts elicited by Zavala present no more óf a case than did those in Castellanos-Garda and Ramos-Godinez. Zavala entered the United States unbeknownst to the Alcan agents, and remained undetected for approximately one-quarter of a mile into U.S. territory.
The fact that he proceeded directly to the inspection station did not render him officially restrained.
The situations in which we have found constant surveillance which may be construed as official restraint do not aid Zava-la. In Pacheco-Medina, the defendant and two others were detected by a surveillance camera as they attempted to scale the fence guarding the U.S.-Mexico border. Pacheco’s two associates were apprehended immediately upon reaching the ground, while Pacheco was chased from the moment he landed. Pacheco left the agent’s sight for only a “split second as he *1124rounded a corner,” and was captured within a few yards of the border. Pacheco-Medina, 212 F.3d at 1163. We found that Pacheco had been under “constant surveillance” because “[h]e was in the clutches of the authorities ... and had no opportunity to get free of them.” Id. at 1165. In contrast, Zavala was not identified until he had traversed the quarter-mile between the border and the inspection station. The fact that he drove directly to Alcan does not alter the fact that during that quarter-mile, he was free to exercise his will by absconding into the dense forest surrounding the road, and was therefore free from official restraint.
Zavala entered the United States unnoticed by the officials at Alcan. Testimony at trial indicated, in fact, that the physical border was completely shielded from the view of the Alcan Port of Entry. From the time that Zavala crossed the border into the United States until the moment he was first observed by the Alcan agents, Zavala was free “to go at large and mix with the population.” Hernandez-Herrera, 273 F.3d at 1219. That he drove directly to the inspection station and presented himself for review may have been relevant to his state of mind in a prosecution for attempted illegal entry; it is utterly irrelevant to the question of whether he had “entered” the United States for the purposes of being “found in” the country illegally. Since he was not under constant surveillance from the moment he entered the U.S. until the moment of his arrest, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a rational trier of fact could easily conclude that Za-vala was not under the “official restraint” of governmental authorities. I would, therefore, affirm the district court’s denial of Zavala’s Rule 29 motion for acquittal.

. There was no testimony which would liken the forested area outside Alcan to the “dense brush” from which there was "no hope of escape” in Hernandez-Herrera. 273 F.3d at 1216.

. Compare Ruiz-Lopez, 234 F.3d at 448-49(holding that evidence adduced by government was insufficient to carry burden because the arresting official, whose standard practice was to closely monitor all individuals attempting to cross the border at the Tecate processing center, could not recall the precise circumstances of the arrest; since Ruiz may have been under constant surveillance from the moment he crossed the border, no rational juror could conclude that Ruiz was free from official restraint).