United States v. Jesus Mata-Abundiz

EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

Mata-Abundiz was convicted of possession of a firearm by an illegal alien. At trial, the only evidence of Mata’s alienage was his admission to a criminal investigator for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that he was a citizen of Mexico. Mata made the statement while he was jailed on state charges. He was not given Miranda warnings. The question presented is whether the investigator’s failure to give Mata the Miranda warnings makes the answers inadmissible in a subsequent criminal prosecution. We conclude that it does and reverse the conviction.

I.…