Today, the Eighth Circuit addressed whether checking the "U.S. citizen or national" box on an I-9 form can constitute a false claim to U.S. citizenship. The court reaffirmed its prior case law that checking this box on an I-9, on its own, does not necessarily establish a false claim to U.S. citizenship. However, because the case arose in the context of eligibility for relief (the petitioner was seeking adjustment of status), the petitioner bore the burden of proving that his action did not constitute a false claim to U.S. citizenship that would render him inadmissible. The petitioner testified that he did not know what a U.S. national was, that he had represented himself to be a U.S. citizen on his college application, and that he had not followed the application process laid out by his college for non-U.S. citizens. Thus, the court found that he had not met his burden of demonstrating that his misrepresentation on the I-9 form was not a false claim to U.S. citizenship that rendered him inadmissible.
The full text of Mayemba v. Holder can be found here: http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/15/01/131558P.pdf