USCA11 Case: 19-13989 Date Filed: 12/01/2020 Page: 1 of 13 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-13989 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:15-cr-20914-UU-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ANDERSON JEAN, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (December 1, 2020) Before ROSENBAUM, LAGOA, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: USCA11 Case: 19-13989 Date Filed: 12/01/2020 Page: 2 of 13 Anderson Jean is a federal prisoner who is serving an 84-month total sentence after pleading guilty to two immigration offenses. In this direct appeal, he seeks to vacate one of his guilty pleas, arguing that the district court violated Rule 11, Fed R. Crim. P., by failing to ensure that an adequate factual basis supported his plea or that he understood the nature of the charge against him. After careful review, we affirm. I. In November 2015, Jean was charged with twelve counts of knowingly encouraging and inducing an alien to enter the United States, 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) (Counts 1-12), and one count of aiding an inadmissible alien who had been convicted of an aggravated felony to enter the United States, 8 U.S.C. § 1327 (Count 13). Specifically, Count 13 charged that Jean Did knowingly aid and assist an alien, CHRISTOVAL REECE, to enter the United States, said alien being inadmissible under Title 8, United States Code, Section 1182(a)(2), as an alien who had been convicted of an aggravated felony. Jean agreed to plead guilty to Counts 1 and 13 in a written plea agreement. In exchange, the government agreed to move to drop the remaining counts after sentencing, to recommend a three-level acceptance-of-responsibility reduction be applied in Jean’s guidelines calculations, and to recommend that his sentences run concurrently with those imposed in two other, unrelated criminal cases. The plea agreement contained an appeal waiver, in which Jean agreed to waive his right to 2 USCA11 Case: 19-13989 Date Filed: 12/01/2020 Page: 3 of 13 “assert any claim that . . . the admitted conduct does not fall within the scope of the statute of conviction.” In a written factual proffer that accompanied the plea agreement, the parties stipulated that the government could prove the following facts if the case proceeded to trial. In March 2015, the U.S. Coast Guard sent a small law-enforcement vessel to intercept a suspicious vessel that was traveling in international waters toward Miami without navigational lights. The vessel did not stop immediately when the law-enforcement vessel activated its lights and sirens, but eventually it did. By the time it had stopped, Jean, who was the master of the vessel, had stepped away from the helm. Officers found approximately $6,000 in Jean’s possession. Thirteen people, including Jean, were onboard, and none had permission to enter the United States. Jean and four other Haitian nationals were transferred to another Coast Guard boat and taken back to Haiti. The remaining individuals were brought ashore for processing by ...
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