Man harboring alien child seeks no harsh sentence

Francisco Muna Tydingco is asking the federal court for a lighter sentence after being convicted of aiding and abetting his wife in harboring an illegal minor.

Tydingco, through counsel Steven P. Pixley, said he should get a sentence at the low end of the sentencing guideline.

Pixley said that Francisco Tydingco and his wife, Lili, traveled to China with their two children in September 2013. While there, Lili met with Zongkuai Ni who wanted his child to attend school in the United States. Pixley said Ni had previously lived in the CNMI.

On Sept. 26, 2013, the Tydingco family returned to Saipan, this time accompanied by Ni’s child, who was 10 years old at that time.

Pixley said Tydingco completed the requisite CNMI Customs Form in which he listed Ni’s child on the form as a Chinese national.

Pixley said Tydingco was not interviewed by immigration officials at the Saipan airport, while Lili was selected for additional screening, together with Ni’s child.

The lawyer said outside of the presence of Tydingo, Ni’s child was paroled into the CNMI until Nov. 4, 2013, under the Visa Waiver Program.

Pixley said Homeland Security Investigations Task Force officer Jesse Dubrall testified at the trial that he established that the child was an alien and that she had overstayed her entry into the CNMI.

Pixley said during cross-examination, Dubrall admitted that the U.S. had no evidence suggesting that Tydingco had done anything to hide the whereabouts of the child from immigration authorities.

Pixley pointed out that Dubrall further testified that Lili had a document prepared in China and signed by the child’s parents authorizing the Tydingco couple to serve as the child’s guardians.

The lawyer said Tydingco does not agree that the application of the 2016 sentencing guidelines would necessarily result in a harsher sentence.

Indeed, Pixley said, if Tydingco can demonstrate that he was the “legal guardian” of the child, then there would be no enhancement under the 2016 sentencing guidelines.

Pixley said the amended sentencing guidelines contain no definition of the term “legal guardian.”

Elsewhere however, Pixley said, federal law defines “legal guardian.”

Pixley said these definitions typically contemplate that a legal guardian will have custody of and/or will exercise control over his or her ward.

He said it is clear that the Sentencing Commission was concerned about “unaccompanied” minors being “smuggled” into the U.S.

In this case, Pixley said, the evidence supports a finding that the child lawfully entered the U.S. accompanied by two adults in possession of documents executed by the child’s parents designating the Tydingco couple as guardians.

Moreover, Pixley said, Tydingco took no action to hide the child.

Last June, a federal jury found the Tydingco couple guilty of one count of harboring an alien.

The offense carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

The indictment charged the Tydingcos with two counts of harboring illegal alien. The prosecution, however, dismissed one count pertaining to the child’s uncle after the government completed calling its witnesses during the trial.

According to Homeland Security Investigations Task Force officer Dubrall, the child’s purported uncle, Rongxue Liu, stated in an interview that he paid $7,000 in exchange for helping him enter into a fake marriage and obtain a green card.

Dubrall said the parents of the child admitted that they agreed to pay Lili between $15,000 and $20,000 to take their child to Saipan and get her a green card.