Juan Reyes-Perez v. Eric H. Holder Jr. , 501 F. App'x 695 ( 2012 )

FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION DEC 26 2012
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
JUAN REYES PEREZ, No. 08-72523
Petitioner, Agency No. A077-349-260
v.
ORDER AND MEMORANDUM *
ERIC H. HOLDER, Jr., Attorney General,
Respondent.
On Petition for Review of an Order of the
Board of Immigration Appeals
Argued and Submitted December 5, 2012
Pasadena, California
Before: WARDLAW, BEA, and N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judges.
Juan Reyes Perez, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of the
Board of Immigration Appeals’ order dismissing his appeal from an immigration
judge’s decision ordering him removed for alien smuggling. See 8 U.S.C.
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
§ 1182(a)(6)(E)(i). We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252, and we deny the
petition.1
Assuming that Reyes’s testimony was credible, immigration officers’ threats
that Reyes would be deported or imprisoned if he did not admit the charges were
coercive, and his inculpatory statements should have been excluded. Bong Youn
Choy v. Barber, 279 F.2d 642, 647 (9th Cir. 1960) (suppressing as involuntary an
alien’s statement “obtained by the government by inducing fear through official
threats of prosecution”). Nevertheless, substantial evidence supports the agency's
alternative holding that Reyes is removable due to alien smuggling even excluding
his coerced statements. The record reflects that, when immigration officers asked
for identification for Reyes’s undocumented niece at primary inspection, Reyes
gave the immigration officer his daughter’s birth certificate, in an attempt to
provide the identification necessary to allow the niece to cross the border. This
affirmative act is sufficient to establish the elements of Reyes’s smuggling charge.
See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(E)(i); Aguilar Gonzalez v. Mukasey, 534 F.3d 1204,
1208-09 (9th Cir. 2008).
PETITION DENIED.
1
We grant Reyes’s motion to file a substitute brief. The substitute brief
received on December 3, 2012 is deemed filed.
2