United States v. Rojas, No. 13-50926 (5th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of illegally reentering the United States after deportation. On appeal, defendant challenged his conviction based on the grounds that he was neither "found" nor "in" the United States as required by 8 U.S.C. 1326(a). The court concluded that the cases defendant cites stand for the proposition that an alien is not "found" if he voluntarily presents himself to immigration authorities when seeking entry into the United States, but they do not reach the situation of an individual, like defendant, seeking to exit the country. The court declined to extend the "voluntary disclosure" rule to defendant's circumstances. The court need not decide whether the official restraint doctrine applies in this circuit because even if it does, defendant does not fall within the "official restraint" parameters. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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.