Flores-Figueroa v. United States

556 U.S. 646 (2009)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Ignacio Flores-Figueroa (D) is a citizen of Mexico. To secure employment, D gave his employer a false name, birth date, and Social Security number, along with a counterfeit alien registration card. The Social Security number and the number on the alien registration card were not those of a real person. In 2006, D presented his employer with new counterfeit Social Security and alien registration cards; these cards used his real name. But this time the numbers on both cards were in fact numbers assigned to other people. The United States (P) charged D with two predicate crimes, namely, entering the United States without inspection, 8 U. S. C. §1325(a), and misusing immigration documents, 18 U. S. C. §1546(a). And it charged him with aggravated identity theft, 18 U. S. C. §1028A(a)(1). D moved for a judgment of acquittal on the “aggravated identity theft” counts. He claimed that P could not prove that he knew that the numbers on the counterfeit documents were numbers assigned to other people. The court found D guilty of the predicate crimes and aggravated identity theft. The Court of Appeals upheld the District Court’s determination. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the “knowledge” issue-a matter about which the Circuits have disagreed.