United States v. Jesus Mata-Abundiz

Mata-Abundiz was convicted of possession of a firearm by an illegal alien. At trial, the only evidence of Mata’s alienage was his admission to a criminal investigator for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that he was a citizen of Mexico. Mata made the statement while he was jailed on state charges. He was not given Miranda warnings. The question presented is whether the investigator’s failure to give Mata the Miranda warnings makes the answers inadmissible in a subsequent criminal prosecution. We conclude that it does and reverse the conviction.

I. FACTS

Mata was arrested and charged with a violation of state statutes against carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a firearm by an alien. He was confined in the county jail in Yakima, Washington.

Ten days later, DeWitt, an experienced INS criminal investigator, visited Mata at the jail to obtain biographical information about Mata’s immigration status. DeWitt characterized the visit as a routine, civil investigation. He had access to Mata’s booking information and was aware of the state firearms charges. DeWitt gave no Miranda warnings during the interview. When he asked Mata about his citizenship, Mata…