Evidence of marriage fraud by three brothers in their bid for citizenship was enough to convict

The defendants in U.S. v. Chahla were three brothers from Syria who were convicted following a jury trial of various federal crimes in connection with their fraudulent marriages and their subsequent attempt to procure citizenship. The three brothers, all of whom resided in Florida, paid three women for a marriage. After their respective marriages, the brothers filed an I-130 petition to sponsor the defendants in their request for lawful permanent resident status (“green card”.) At the same time the brothers filed their own form I-485 application to adjust their status based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. After they were interviewed by immigration officials, the defendants received lawful permanent resident status. Two of brothers up applied for citizenship while the third just applied for his lawful permanent residency. An investigation into their marriage led to these charges.

The defense were indicted and convicted of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and six counts of unlawful procurement of naturalization pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1425. For two of the defendants, the unlawful procurement of naturalization charges was based on false statements made in the application to become a lawful permanent resident and false statements made in the naturalization application. For a third brother the unlawful procurement charges were only based on his original lawful permanent resident application. Two defendants challenged their conviction under 18 USC § 1425 for unlawful procurement of naturalization and citizenship because the counts relied on false statements made in support of the lawful permanent resident application. The defense argued that the conviction should be reversed because § 1425 criminalizes fraudulent procurement of naturalization, but not false statements made in the application to adjust to permanent residents. The court rejected this argument. It found that becoming a lawful permanent resident was a statutory a prerequisite to becoming a naturalized citizen. The defendants’ attempt to become a naturalized citizen was contrary to law to the extent it was based on fraudulently obtained status as a lawful permanent resident. The defendants filed naturalization applications and a reasonable jury could conclude that the defense intended to seek naturalization when they file their fraudulent lawful permanent resident applications.

A third brother was convicted of making a false statement in the naturalization application. The naturalization form asked if the defendant had ever given false or misleading information to any U.S. government official while applying for any immigration benefits. There was overwhelming evidence that the defendant’s marriage was fraudulent, and the answers to these questions provided evidence for the court to conclude sufficient evidence existed to convict this count.

Claim of bad faith
Finally the defendants challenge to the conviction based upon their argument the government acted in bad faith in calling as a witness when did knew her testimony would conflict with prior statements. The court found no error because the court found the government had not acted in bad faith in offering the testimony of the witness knowing it to be useless without eliciting impeachment testimony.