The Court of Appeals also remanded the cases against Yong Jun Li, Wei Kun Zhong, and Shi Guang Li to the U.S. District Court for the NMI “with instructions that each of the informations be dismissed.”
Then-Chief Judge Alex R. Munson sentenced each of the defendants to one year of probation.
The current status or whereabouts of the defendants could not be determined.
“Because both the CNMI and Guam are parts of the United States, and an alien does not ‘enter the United States’ for purposes of the criminal statute 8 United States Code, 1325 (a) (1) when traveling from one part of the United States to another, even if when doing so she or he passes through international waters, defendants did not violate the statute by attempting to travel by boat from the CNMI to Guam,” the 9th Circuit ruling stated.
“Accordingly, we reverse defendants’ convictions.”
Yong Jun Li, Wei Kun Zhong, and Shi Guang Li belonged to a group of 24 individuals who were arrested for attempting to enter Guam on boat from Saipan in Jan. 2010.
The group included Qingmei Cheng who, when still under the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, was later taken out of the CNMI Department of Corrections facility to give Gov. Benigno R. Fitial an early morning massage.
The defendants filed motions to dismiss the informations against them, arguing that because the Consolidated Natural Resources Act that extended federal immigration law to the CNMI made the commonwealth part of the United States for purposes of immigration law, “an alien traveling from Saipan to Guam at a time or place not designated by immigration officers does not commit a criminal offense.”
But Munson said the defendants were arrested during the CNRA’s transition period, when the CNMI “was not fully part of the United States for immigration purposes.”
Upon the denial of the motion, Yong Jun Li and Wei Kun Zhong entered conditional pleas, reserving their right to appeal the denial of the motions to dismiss.
Shi Guang Li was convicted after a bench trial.
“The district court undertook the wrong inquiry,” the 9th Circuit noted.
“Although the CNRA does not provide for some exceptions to United States immigration law that apply to the CNMI during the transition period, both the Immigration and Nationality Act and the CNRA demonstrate that the CNMI is a part of the United States for purposes of 1325 (a) (1),” the ruling stated.
It added, “Concomitantly, the CNRA, on which the district court relied in these cases, does not indicate that the CNMI is outside of the United States for immigration purposes.”
The 9th Circuit agreed with the U.S. government’s first premise that the trip from the CNMI to Guam did in fact require travel through international waters.
“We disagree, however, with the government’s second premise. A long line of authority construing the term ‘entry’ in the immigration context compels the conclusion that when on travels from one part of the United States to another through international waters, one does not ‘enter the United States,’ ” the 9th Circuit noted.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Schuler represented the U.S. government, while the court-appointed defense lawyers were G. Anthony Long, Sean Frink, and Bruce Berline.
