United States v. Gongora-Parraga

United States v. Gongora-Parraga, No. 06-3133, aff'd (D.C. Cir. May 30, 2006 -- Appellants, Ecuadorian seamen, were seized aboard Ecuadorian ship in international waters 250 miles west of Guatamala by U.S Coast Guard and escorted to Mexico. Mexico expatriated them to the United States to be tried for smuggling aliens who intended to land in Central America and travel over land to this country. Court ruled that despite U.S. adoption of the Treaty on the Law of the High Seas, federal immigration statutes apply extraterritorially in international waters, even when the alleged smugglers never entered or intended to enter U.S. territorial waters.