CA5: Fed.R.Crim.Pro. 12 dismissal and whether temp. treatment benefits make an illegal alien legal

U.S. v. Flores is a King opinion in an appeal from a dismissal of an indictment for possession of a firearm by an illegal allien.  The court first held it appropriate that the trial court considered a Fed.R.Crim.Pro. 12 motion to dismiss the indictment by resolving the legal question of whether Flores was in the country illegally.  In holding that this legal question could and should be resolved the court refused to follow the 11th circuit.  On the substantive issue of whether Flores' indictment should fail because he was "authorized" to be in the country, the court reversed, ruling that Flores was in the country illegally, in spite of the fact that he had received temporary treatment benefits (a stay of removal and an employment permit).