Estrada-Eliverio

I. Background

To obtain a conviction under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, the govern- ment had to prove as an element of the offense that Estrada- Eliverio had previously been deported. See United States v. Barragan-Cepeda, 29 F.3d 1378, 1381 (9th Cir. 1994).

To prove Estrada-Eliverio’s prior deportation, the govern- ment submitted three A-file2 documents: a notice of intent to issue a final administrative removal order, a final administra- tive removal order, and a warrant of removal or deportation. Because the seal that normally authenticates such documents was not visible, they could not be admitted as self- authenticating documents under FRE 902.

Over Estrada-Eliverio’s objections, the district court instead admitted the documents under FRE 901, based on authenticating testimony by Marco Perez, a Border Patrol agent. Perez testified that such documents are kept in A-files, that the documents offered were copies of documents from Estrada-Eliverio’s A-file, that Perez was the custodian of that A-file, and that the documents admitted were true and correct copies of the documents in the A-file, which Perez had per- sonally seen. According to Estrada-Eliverio, this evidence was critical to…