Germain v. U.S. Attorney General, No. 20-11419 (11th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this Case
Germain was admitted to the U.S. in 2007 as a lawful permanent resident. Roughly 10 years later, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit an offense to defraud the government, 18 U.S.C. 371, and three counts of making a false statement in an immigration application, 18 U.S.C. 1546(a). Charged as removable under 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) as an alien convicted of an aggravated felony based on his section 1546(a) convictions, Germain argued that those convictions did not qualify as “aggravated felonies” under 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). He sought cancellation of removal. under section 1229b(a). Germain argued that the parenthetical “(related to document fraud)” in 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43)(P) limited the qualifying 1546(a) convictions to those expressly involving document fraud.
The IJ ordered Germain removed, reasoning that 1546(a) was divisible because it enumerated four distinct offenses in its four paragraphs. Applying the modified categorical approach, the IJ determined that Germain’s indictment showed that he had pleaded guilty to three counts of making a false statement of material fact on an immigration application, all of which qualified as aggravated felonies because they were offenses described in 1546(a). The BIA dismissed Germain’s appeal. The Eleventh Circuit dismissed his petition for review. All four paragraphs of section 1546(a) relate to document fraud and the plain text and structure of the Act demonstrate that the parenthetical “(relating to document fraud)” is merely descriptive of 1546(a), rather than limiting.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.