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United States v. Jose Refugio Ramos
Citations: 840 F.2d 1; 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 3197; 1988 WL 14205Docket: 87-1473
Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; February 29, 1988; Federal Appellate Court
Jose Refugio Ramos was convicted on two counts of unlawfully selling documentary evidence of citizenship, violating 18 U.S.C. § 1427, and subsequently sentenced to concurrent three-year terms of imprisonment, with the second count's sentence suspended and five years of probation. The charges stemmed from Ramos agreeing to sell citizenship documents to a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agent posing as an illegal alien. On June 25, 1986, Ramos obtained and sold a birth certificate to the agent for $500, falsely claiming it would facilitate acquiring a Texas driver's license and a social security card. He later obtained another birth certificate for a fictitious individual, completing a second transaction for the same amount. Ramos's defense argued that he had not acted unlawfully under Texas law, claiming it was legal to obtain birth certificates from the county clerk's office, and contended that he merely provided a service rather than selling the certificates. He also asserted that the statute was ambiguous and should be interpreted in his favor. The court clarified that while obtaining birth certificates may be lawful, Ramos's actions constituted illegal sales with criminal intent, as he sold the certificates for deceptive purposes, which aligns with Texas law prohibiting the sale of such documents for deception. The court rejected Ramos's claims regarding the nature of the transactions and the ambiguity of the statute, affirming the conviction as the statute clearly prohibited his conduct. The judgment of the district court was upheld.