Case: 19-12347 Date Filed: 10/08/2019 Page: 1 of 6 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-12347 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 9:19-cr-80008-DMM-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus JUAN JOSE SOLIS, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (October 8, 2019) Before MARTIN, NEWSOM, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Juan Solis, a native and citizen of Mexico, appeals from his conviction for being found in the United States after being previously removed, in violation of Case: 19-12347 Date Filed: 10/08/2019 Page: 2 of 6 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), (b)(2). He argues, for the first time on appeal, that his conviction should be vacated because the government failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he entered the United States “surreptitiously,” as required under § 1326(a). We disagree and affirm. I. Background Testimony at trial established that Solis first came to the United States with his parents as a child. Solis was issued a green card in 2001, which expired in 2003. In 2007, Solis was ordered removed to Mexico, and he was removed in October 2008. After his removal, Solis did not apply for readmission to the United States. In February 2009, Solis’s father, Juan Solis Ortiz, Sr., drove to Mexico and brought his son back to the United States. The father testified that the pair crossed the United States-Mexico border by vehicle at a border crossing entry point in Texas, with Solis in the passenger seat. The father stated that he provided identification documents for both himself and Solis to the border agent. Specifically, the father provided Solis’s old green card to the border agent as Solis’s identification. The father stated that they did not mention to the agent that the card had expired, and they were permitted to cross the border. However, a deportation officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement testified that a search of the Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) database of entries 2 Case: 19-12347 Date Filed: 10/08/2019 Page: 3 of 6 made into the United States revealed that, while Solis’s father entered the United States from Mexico in February 2009, records indicated that Solis’s father was traveling alone. In January 2019, Solis was discovered and arrested in the United States by DHS officers. Solis was thereafter charged with one count of being found in the United States after having been previously removed. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 12 months and 1-day imprisonment. This appeal follows. II. Standards of Review We generally review the sufficiency of the evidence de novo. United States v. Diaz, 248 F.3d 1065, 1084 (11th Cir. 2001). Solis, however, did not move for a judgment of acquittal on the specific ground he now raises on appeal, 1 and, therefore, we review his claim for plain error. See United States v. Joseph, 709 F.3d 1082, 1093 (11th Cir. 2013) (“We review unpreserved objections for plain error, including unpreserved ...
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