United States v. Fernando Noria, 945 F.3d 847

Fernando Ramirez Noria was indicted for illegal reentry after removal; jury convicted and district court imposed 24-month sentence.
Government sought to admit five Form I-213s (immigration intake reports) documenting prior encounters and removals; defense objected on Confrontation Clause and hearsay grounds.
Parties and court agreed to redact the narrative portions; the Government admitted only the first page of each I-213 (biographical/processing data: name, birthplace, citizenship, A-file number, photos/fingerprints on most).
USCIS section chief Christine Pool authenticated the forms as routine DHS records; fingerprint examiner and other documents corroborated alienage and prior removals.
Court admitted the redacted I-213 pages under Federal Rule of Evidence 803(8) (public-records exception) and found no Confrontation Clause violation; Fifth Circuit affirmed.

Issue	Noria's Argument	Government's Argument	Held
Whether the I-213 entries admitted (first page biographical data) are "testimonial" under the Sixth Amendment	I-213s are testimonial statements by interviewing agents prepared for litigation; admitting them without agent testimony violates Confrontation Clause	The redacted portions are routine administrative records (biographical/process data) prepared for non‑adversarial tracking, not primarily for prosecution	The admitted portions are nontestimonial; no Confrontation Clause violation
Whether the redacted I-213 pages are admissible under Rule 803(8) despite the rule's exclusion for law‑enforcement observations in criminal cases	I-213s are investigative/litigation‑focused and fall within Rule 803(8)(A)(ii)’s bar on law‑enforcement observations in criminal cases	I-213s are routine, ministerial public records created in the regular course of DHS business and thus fall within the public‑records exception	The redacted first pages were admissible under Rule 803(8); the (A)(ii) exclusion did not apply to these routine administrative entries

Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (testimonial statement / confrontation doctrine)
Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813 (primary‑purpose test for testimonial statements)
Melendez‑Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305 (forensic certificates as testimonial)
Bullcoming v. New Mexico, 564 U.S. 647 (testimonial lab reports and confrontation)
United States v. Caraballo, 595 F.3d 1214 (11th Cir.) (I‑213s nontestimonial; routine administrative use)
United States v. Torralba‑Mendia, 784 F.3d 652 (9th Cir.) (I‑213s prepared in non‑adversarial administrative process)
United States v. Valdez‑Maltos, 443 F.3d 910 (5th Cir.) (warrants of removal nontestimonial)
United States v. Garcia, 887 F.3d 205 (5th Cir.) (warrant of removal admissible under Rule 803(8))
United States v. Martinez‑Rios, 595 F.3d 581 (5th Cir.) (Certificate of Nonexistence of Record held testimonial)
United States v. Quezada, 754 F.2d 1190 (5th Cir.) (public‑records exception and distinction for law‑enforcement observations)