United States v. Jose Leonel Pereira-Pineda, A/K/A Jose Luis Morales-Trevino

Defendant appeals separate convictions on several counts of transporting undocumented aliens within the United States. In this consolidated appeal, he asserts that because the aliens he was transporting were citizens of El Salvador the aliens had a right to (and did) apply for political asylum in the United States,- and that, thus, the Government could hot prove an essential element of its burden of proof, that the aliens were not lawfully entitled to enter or reside within the United States. We affirm the convictions.

Jose Leonel Pereira-Pineda, the defendant, is a Guatemalan national and…