United States v. Paul Oscar

OPINION

EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

Paul Oscar appeals from a conviction for aiding, abetting, and assisting two aliens “attempting to enter the United States by eluding inspection by making a false verbal claim of United States citizenship” in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325 and 18 U.S.C. § 2. Appellant was convicted after trial to a United States Magistrate, and the conviction was affirmed in district court. We reverse.

The facts are not in dispute. Appellant and a co-defendant, Earnest Holmes, contrived a scheme to smuggle Philip Cain and Manuel Tejeda, both British Hondurans, into the…