PADILLA CARINO V. GARLAND 9
The central issue is whether Carino meets the third
condition. The meaning of the term “legal custody” as
contained in section 1432(a)(3) is a question of federal
statutory interpretation. See United States v. Casasola,
670 F.3d 1023, 1029–32 (9th Cir. 2012). “Although
uniformity is an important concern in federal statutory
interpretation, where the term in question involves a legal
relationship that is created by state or foreign law, the court
must begin its analysis by looking to that law.” Minasyan,
401 F.3d at 1076 (citations omitted). “This is especially true
where a statute deals with a familial relationship; there is no
federal law of domestic relations, which is primarily a matter
of state concern.” De Sylva v. Ballentine, 351 U.S. 570, 580
(1956).
Carino satisfies the third condition’s parental legal
separation element because his parents separated in 1990
when Carino was nine years old. However, with respect to
the condition’s legal custody element, we have held that
within the context of section 1432(a), “[t]he phrase ‘legal
custody[]’ . . . means sole legal custody.” Casasola,
670 F.3d at 1029; see id. at 1031 (reasoning, in part, that “if
[section] 1432(a) were interpreted to allow the naturalization
of one parent with joint legal custody to confer automatic
derivative citizenship on a child, the statute would not serve
the purpose of protecting the custodial, non-citizen parent”).
Here, the state court’s 1990 decree served as a judicial
determination that established joint legal custody between
Carino’s parents. Cf. Minasyan, 401 F.3d at 1076 & n.12
(recognizing the government’s concession that the
naturalized parent’s actual custody of the petitioner satisfied
the legal custody condition because “[i]n the absence of a
judicial determination or judicial statutory grant of custody
where the parents are legally separated, the parent having
actual uncontested custody is to be regarded as having ‘legal