United States v. Lucio Medina-Suarez

I. BACKGROUND

In July 2019, border patrol agents encountered Medina- Suarez in a remote area of California about a mile north of the United States-Mexico border. When questioned, Medina-Suarez told the agents he was a citizen of Mexico and did not have any documents allowing him legally to be in the United States. The government initially charged Medina-Suarez with misdemeanor attempted illegal entry under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a), but three weeks later the grand jury returned an indictment increasing the charge to felony attempted illegal entry—an offense with the same elements as the misdemeanor but with the additional element of a prior § 1325(a) conviction.

The case proceeded to trial in September 2020. One of the government’s witnesses was the custodian of “A- Files”—files that contain documents regarding aliens’ immigration histories. During direct examination, the A-File custodian identified the number of Medina-Suarez’s A-File and described several documents in that file, including: warrants of removal/deportation from September 2018 and July 2019; written “warning[s] to alien ordered removed or deported” dated September 2018 and July 2019; and a criminal complaint and…