Immigration – Citizenship

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U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Immigration – Citizenship

The State Department reasonably concluded that a passport applicant was not a natural citizen.

“There are myriad problems with this affidavit, including once again difficulties in establishing that the document was in fact created at the stated date. Mathin failed to establish the date of origin, nor was there any basis to conclude that the document was kept in a place where, if authentic, it would likely be. As the district court noted, Mathin failed to explain why Ina Nielsen would have had in her possession an original letter delivered to the Indian Consulate General in 1965. Nor is it conceivable that Nielsen would create and forward such an affidavit to establish the birth, yet not assist Mathin’s parents in simply obtaining a birth certificate for Mathin at the time of birth, particularly given Mathin’s claim that he was taken for examination to a hospital following his birth. Mathin also failed to produce any evidence that under Indian law in 1965 an undocumented infant could travel on his mother’s passport. The insurmountable obstacle to credibility, however, is the uncontested evidence that Nielsen’s signature on the April 2000 affidavit which was verified by the notary is starkly different from the signature on the 1965 affidavit. Mathin asserts that signatures may change over time, but the differences in the handwriting are so stark that Mathin acknowledged to the district court that the signatures were in fact different. Mathin submitted three greeting cards that he claimed to have received from Nielsen, and there is no dispute that those signatures were also distinct from the others; in fact the name Nielsen was even spelled differently, as ‘Nelson,’ in those cards. The district court properly determined that those disparities created a strong reason to suspect that the Nielsen affidavit was fraudulent. There is no error in that quite reasonable conclusion. In short, although Mathin has presented multiple arguments as to why the district court could have reached different fact findings in this case, he has failed to demonstrate that the district court’s findings were clearly erroneous.”

Affirmed.

14-1889 Mathin v. Kerry

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Lefkow, J., Rovner, J.

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