United States v. Vargas-Cordon

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that there was sufficient evidence of an intent to prevent detection by authorities where defendant’s “motivations were both to continue their relationship and to prevent authorities from returning [the alien] to government-arranged foster care”
• holding that an Allen charge was proper where “the district court repeatedly warned the jurors not to surrender their conscientiously held beliefs, which is an instruction we have previously held to mitigate greatly a charge’s potential coercive effect”
• observing that “even if Vargas-Cordon’s conduct lacked the hallmarks of active, classic concealment, it nevertheless was intended to make [the illegal alien’s] detection by the authorities substantially more difficult”
• interpreting the term “harboring” in the context of harboring undocumented individuals under 8 U.S.C. § 1324
• “[T]he contemplated unlawful sexual activity need not be the defendant’s sole purpose for transporting a minor in interstate or foreign commerce.”
• “The mere act of providing shelter to an alien, when done without intention to help prevent the alien’s detection by immigration authorities or police, is thus not an offense under § 1324(a)(l)(A)(iii).”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).