United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 19-2682 ___________________________ Edgar Gallegos Garcia lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner - Appellant v. William P. Barr, United States Attorney General; Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, Acting Director, United States Citizenship & Immigration Services; United States Citizenship and Immigration Service; Kevin McAleenan, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Leslie Tritten, District Director, United States Citizenship & Immigration Services lllllllllllllllllllllRespondents - Appellees ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the District of Minnesota ____________ Submitted: June 18, 2020 Filed: August 20, 2020 [Published] ____________ Before KELLY, ERICKSON, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. ____________ PER CURIAM. Following a one-day bench trial, the district court granted Edgar Gallegos Garcia’s application for naturalization. Garcia then moved for attorney’s fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412 (2019). The district court denied his motion, and Garcia appeals. We affirm the district court’s order with the modification that Garcia is awarded costs. I. In May 2013, Garcia, then a citizen of Mexico and lawful permanent resident of the United States, was hired by the City of Hopkins, Minnesota, as a police cadet. In August 2014, after Garcia completed the cadet course, the City offered him his “dream job,” a position as a Minnesota peace officer. Then-captain Brent Johnson filled out a Certification Form to request a peace officer license for Garcia, without input from Garcia. He provided the Certification Form for both Garcia and then- police chief Michael Reynolds to sign. Minnesota does not require its police cadets to be U.S. citizens but does require its peace officers to be U.S. citizens. As such, above the signature line, the Certification Form asked Garcia to affirm that he was “a citizen of the United States.” Garcia signed the Certification Form without reading it. He knew that some states required its officers to be citizens, but he did not research whether Minnesota had such a requirement. Garcia’s request for a peace officer license was granted, and he began working as a full-time patrol officer. Several months later, he resigned for reasons unrelated to his immigration status. He then applied for police officer positions in Texas, where his brother had been a police officer for more than twenty years, and was told that Texas required its police officers to have U.S. citizenship. Garcia subsequently applied for naturalization and was denied. The naturalization application asked, “Have you ever claimed to be a U.S. citizen (in writing or any other way)?” Under penalty of perjury, Garcia checked the “no” box. -2- During the in-person naturalization interview, Garcia affirmed under oath the accuracy of his naturalization application, including the answer “no” to whether he had ever claimed to be a U.S. citizen. The government denied his application on the grounds that Garcia lacked good moral character because he falsely stated that he had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen. The government affirmed its denial after a re- hearing, and Garcia filed a petition in federal court for a de ...
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