Thompson v. Lynch

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 14-1858
RICHARD MARVIN THOMPSON,
Petitioner,
v.
LORETTA E. LYNCH,*
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES,
Respondent.
PETITION FOR REVIEW OF AN ORDER OF
THE BOARD OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS
Before
Howard, Chief Judge,
Torruella and Lipez, Circuit Judges.
Thomas S. Rome, on brief for petitioner.
Joseph D. Hardy, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration
Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice,
Benjamin C. Mizer, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General,
Civil Division, and Blair T. O'Connor, Assistant Director, on brief
for respondent.
December 29, 2015
* Pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 43(c)(2), Attorney General
Loretta E. Lynch is substituted for former Attorney General
Eric H. Holder, Jr. as respondent.
TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Richard Marvin
Thompson ("Thompson") is a lawful permanent resident who was
convicted of a deportable offense. Thompson contends that he has
derivative citizenship from his father's naturalization and
therefore cannot be deported. Former section 321(a) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act provides that a child derives
citizenship from the naturalization of one parent if (1) the
naturalized parent has "legal custody of the child when there has
been a legal separation of the parents"; (2) the naturalization
occurs before the child turns eighteen years old; and (3) the child
is a lawful permanent resident either at the time of or after the
naturalization. 8 U.S.C. § 1432(a) (repealed 2000).
In his petition for review, Thompson argues the Board of
Immigration Appeals ("BIA") incorrectly rejected his argument that
his parents were in a common-law marriage and legally separated
within the meaning of former section 321(a)(3) when they ceased
cohabitation. But Thompson has not proven that his parents'
relationship or separation was legally recognized. As a result,
we deny Thompson's petition.
I. Facts
Thompson was born in 1982 to Jamaican parents in Jamaica.
Sometime after Thompson's birth, Thompson's father moved to the
United States and, in 1992, became a naturalized citizen. In
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1997, Thompson's father petitioned for Thompson to immigrate to
the United States. Later that year, at the age of fourteen,
Thompson was admitted as a lawful permanent resident and moved to
the United States to live with his father. Thompson remained in
the custody of his father until he reached adulthood.
In 2001, Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of second-
degree assault in violation of section 53a-60a(2) of the
Connecticut General Statutes and received a sentence of five years'
imprisonment, suspended, and three years' probation. The parties
do not dispute that this qualified as a removable offense under
either 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) (an aggravated felony) or 8
U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i) (a crime of moral turpitude committed
within five years after admission and for which a sentence of one
year or more of imprisonment could be imposed).
By 2012, the government had detained Thompson and
initiated deportation proceedings against him. Thompson then
filed an N-600 application for citizenship with U.S. Customs and
Immigration Services ("USCIS"), claiming that he derived
citizenship from his father's naturalization. USCIS denied
Thompson's application, explaining that because Thompson's parents
were never legally married, they could not have legally separated
as required by section 321(a)(3). An immigration judge adopted
USCIS's reasoning fully and ordered Thompson be removed to Jamaica.
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Thompson appealed the removal order to the BIA. In his
appeal, Thompson asserted that his parents "were common law spouses
in Jamaica" who legally separated when they ceased cohabitation.
The BIA rejected this argument on the grounds that Thompson had
not proven that Jamaica recognized common-law marriage at the time
of his birth and that the cessation of cohabitation did not qualify
as a "legal separation." Based on these conclusions, the BIA
affirmed the removal order.
II. Discussion
Thompson's citizenship claim depends on former section
321(a), which reads:
A child born outside of the United States of
alien parents becomes a citizen of the United
States upon fulfillment of the following
conditions:
. . . .
(3) The naturalization of the parent having
legal custody of the child when there has been
a legal separation of the parents . . .; and
if
(4) Such naturalization takes place while
such child is under the age of eighteen years;
and
(5) Such child is residing in the United
States pursuant to a lawful admission for
permanent residence at the time of the
naturalization . . . or thereafter begins to
reside permanently in the United States while
under the age of eighteen years.
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8 U.S.C. § 1432(a) (repealed 2000).1 The parties do not dispute
that Thompson meets subsections (4) and (5)'s requirements. What
the parties do dispute is whether Thompson meets subsection (3)'s
requirement that his father had legal custody of Thompson following
a "legal separation" from Thompson's mother.
We have previously held that the term "having legal
custody" as used in former section 321(a)(3) is "a question of
federal statutory interpretation." Fierro v. Reno, 217 F.3d 1,
3-4 (1st Cir. 2000). But because "[l]egal relationships between
parents and children are typically governed by state law, there
being 'no federal law of domestic relations,'" the term "legal
custody" as used in former section 321(a)(3) "should be taken
presumptively to mean legal custody under the law of the state in
question." Id. at 4 (quoting De Sylva v. Ballentine, 351 U.S.
570, 580 (1956)). Based on the same reasoning, we believe "legal
separation" as used in former section 321(a)(3) presumptively
incorporates the wedlock rules of the state (or, in Thompson's
1 The Child Citizenship Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-395, 114
Stat. 1631, repealed this provision. The BIA has interpreted the
Child Citizenship Act as applying only to individuals who turned
eighteen after its effective date. In re Rodríguez-Tejedor, 23
I. & N. Dec. 153, 162, 2001 WL 865412 (BIA 2001). Thompson turned
eighteen before the Child Citizenship Act's effective date and
never argued (either at the administrative level or in his petition
to this Court) that the Child Citizenship Act's new provisions
should apply to his case.
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case, country) in which the legal relationship originated and
terminated. See also Wedderburn v. INS, 215 F.3d 795, 799 (7th
Cir. 2000) (looking to Jamaican law to determine marital status of
petitioner's parents).
Simply put, Thompson's claim of citizenship under former
section 321(a)(3) fails because he cannot prove his parents were
in a legally recognized relationship from which they could legally
separate. As Thompson points out, Jamaica's Property (Rights of
Spouses) Act ("Property Act"), defines the term "spouse" as
including persons who cohabitated together "as if [they] were in
law [husband and wife] for a period of not less than five years."
Property (Rights of Spouses) Act, pt. I, § 2(1) (Act No. 4/2004)
(Jam.). But Thompson fails to explain how a law enacted in 2004,
and with an operational date of 2006, id., helps us understand
whether a relationship that must have ended by 1992 (the year
Thompson's father became a United States citizen) was legally
recognized. Cf. Wedderburn, 215 F.3d at 799 (recognizing the
petitioners' "diligent search" did not find any Jamaican law
proving that Jamaica recognized common-law marriages as of 2000).
In fact, Part V of the Property Act states that it does not affect
"any legal proceeding in respect of property. . . instituted" or
"any remedy in respect of any such legal proceeding . . . acquired,
accrued or incurred" prior to its enactment -- in other words, by
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its terms, it is not retroactive. Property (Rights of Spouses)
Act, pt. 5, § 24 (Act No. 4/2004). Without a legally recognized
relationship, Thompson's parents could not have legally separated
as required by section 321(a)(3).
Thompson's failure to prove that Jamaica recognized
common-law marriages while his parents were in a relationship is
dispositive of his claim. But even if the Property Act applied
retroactively, we note that Thomson has adduced no evidence showing
his parents were common-law spouses within its definition.
Because the Government proved that Thompson was born abroad,
Thompson had the burden of proving "by a fair preponderance of the
evidence" his derivative citizenship. Leal Santos v. Mukasey, 516
F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir. 2008). The only evidence of this fact in the
administrative record is Thompson's bare assertion in his BIA
appeal.2 Although this Court may consider evidence outside of the
administrative record, Batista v. Ashcroft, 270 F.3d 8, 14-15 (1st
Cir. 2001), Thompson has not provided any additional evidence on
2 In his BIA brief, Thompson directs the BIA to look at a "[c]opy
of submission evidencing Common Law Marriage Relationship
previously submitted to DHS on June 27, 2012." This submission
was not included in the administrative record nor separately
submitted to this Court. Moreover, USCIS's denial of Thompson's
citizenship application states it requested Thompson's attorney to
"provide legal authority for the theory that she represented as
the basis of [Thompson's] derivative citizenship" but she did not
respond.
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appeal. For example, there are no affidavits from either of
Thompson's parents stating that they lived together at the time of
his birth. Thompson himself only provided this assertion through
filings by his counsel.3 Thus the factual basis for Thompson's
claim is also suspect.
Finally, even if Thompson's parents were in a common-
law marriage, Thompson has failed to provide any details (factual
or legal) showing that they "legally separated." Thompson's
argument is entirely premised on the idea that common-law spouses
legally separate when they cease cohabitation. Thompson has
failed to cite any authority, federal or Jamaican, that supports
his purported definition of "legal separation" and we have not
found any.
III. Conclusion
For the reasons stated above, Thompson's petition for
review is Denied.
3 When a petitioner makes a citizenship claim, we have
jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(5)(A) and (B) "to determine
whether there is a 'genuine issue of material fact' as to the
citizenship claim" and if so, we must transfer the case to district
court for fact-finding proceedings. Batista, 270 F.3d at 12.
Because we have equated this to summary judgment review, id., we
conclude Thompson could not rely solely on unsupported statements
in his pleadings to prove his parents' relationship.
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