United States v. Sonmez

Defendant, a Turkish national, appealed his conviction for violating the marriage fraud statute under 8 U.S.C. 1325(c). Section 1325(c) prohibits entry into a marriage "for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws." Defendant argued that the jury should have been instructed that he could not be convicted unless the jury found that his "sole" purpose in entering into the marriage was to evade the immigration laws. The court held that because defendant's proposed instructions are not correct statements of law, the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to give those instructions to the jury. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Sonmez" on Justia Law