Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-90-02282/USCOURTS-ca10-90-02282-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Juan Silva-Moreno
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

FILED 

United State~ C1!'U!'t ,.., A "f!er.i§ ... 

SEP 1 - 1992 

ROBERT L. ttur~CKER 

Clerk 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, 

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No. 90-2282 

v. 

(D.C. Cr. No. 90-298 HB) 

(D. New Mexico) 

JUAN SILVA-MORENO, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

ORDER and JUDGMENT* 

Before •• LOGAN and BRORBY, Circuit Judges, and CARRIGAN, District 

Judge. 

Appellant Juan Silva-Moreno appeals his conviction for 

transporting undocumented aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. 

§ 1324(a) (1) (B). The issue before us is whether the district 

court properly denied Silva-Moreno's motion to suppress physical 

evidence and statements obtained after he was stopped while 

driving his automobile. 

* This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall 

not be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, except 

for the purposes of establishing the doctrines of law of the case, 

res judicata or collateral estoppel. 10th Cir. R. 36.3. 

** The Honorable Jim R. Carrigan, United States District Judge 

for the District of Colorado, sitting by designation. 

Appellate Case: 90-2282 Document: 010110309423 Date Filed: 09/01/1992 Page: 1
I. 

On June 19, 1990, Tony Dominguez, an investigator with the 

Eddy County, New Mexico, Sheriff's Department, observed a midcompact Chevrolet with Texas license plates travelling northbound 

through Carlsbad, New Mexico. 1 That vehicle was moving 

noticeably slower than the traffic flow and appeared to be 

carrying at least seven people of Mexican descent. Dominguez 

followed the Chevrolet onto a residential street where the driver 

and right front passenger appeared to be looking for a particular 

address. Local police and the United States Border Patrol 

previously had received information that a home in that 

residential area was harboring illegal aliens. 

Based on Dominguez's report as well as the Chevrolet's 

presence in the vicinity of a house suspected of harboring 

illegal aliens, Joe Steven Smith, a Border Patrol agent, went to 

the area and stopped the car. He found eight persons in the car, 

three in the front seat, four seated in the rear seat and one 

lying on the laps of the other rear seat passengers. Smith asked 

the car's occupants their citizenship. Silva-Moreno, the driver, 

produced an amnesty card. His passengers all stated that they 

were citizens of Mexico. 

Silva-Moreno was subsequently charged with transporting 

undocumented aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324{a) {l) (B). 

After a hearing, the district court denied his motion to suppress 

Carlsbad, New Mexico is approximately 110 air miles and 165 

road miles from of the Mexican border. 

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Appellate Case: 90-2282 Document: 010110309423 Date Filed: 09/01/1992 Page: 2
physical evidence and statements obtained when his vehicle was 

stopped . He then pleaded guilty, reserving his right to appeal 

the denial of his motion to suppress. 

II. 

A trial court's findings of fact must be accepted unless 

clearly erroneous. UnitedStatesv.McA/pine, 919 F . 2d 1461, 1463 (10th 

Cir. 1990). If the trial court has not made findings of fact, 

this court must uphold the trial court's ruling so long as it is 

supported by any reasonable view of the evidence. United States v. 

Cooper, 733 F.2d 1360, 1364 (10th Cir.), cert denied, 467 U.S . 1255 

(1984). Here the trial judge did make oral findings (TR. 44-45), 

and therefore the clearly erroneous standard applies. 

Review of the district court's denial of the motion to 

suppress turns upon a determination of whether the stop of SilvaMoreno's vehicle was supported by reasonable suspicion. United 

Statesv.Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873 (1975). Reasonableness of a 

search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment is a question of 

law which we review denovo. UnitedStatesv. Butler, 904 F.2d 1482 , 1484 

(10th Cir. 1990). 

An investigatory stop in a border area is lawful if "the 

totality of the specific articulable facts presented in [a] case, 

together with the rational inferences to be drawn therefrom" 

reasonably warrant suspicion that a vehicle contains persons 

illegally in the country. United States v. Monsisvais, 907 F. 2d 987, 992 

(10th Cir. 1990). 

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Appellate Case: 90-2282 Document: 010110309423 Date Filed: 09/01/1992 Page: 3
In determining whether there is reasonable suspicion to stop 

a car in a border area, officers may consider a number of 

factors, including: 

11 (1) characteristics of the area in which the vehicle 

is encountered; (2) the proximity of the area to the 

border; (3) the usual patterns of traffic on the 

particular road; (4) the previous experience of the 

agent with alien traffic; (5) information about recent 

illegal border crossings in the area; (6) the driver's 

behavior, including any obvious attempts to evade 

officers; (7) aspects of the vehicle, such as a station 

wagon with concealed compartments; and (8) the 

appearance that the vehicle is heavily loaded." 

Monsisvais, 907 F.2d at 990 (citing Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 

at 884-85) . 

Although the ancestral appearance of a person, by itself, 

does not justify an investigatory stop in a border area, it is a 

relevant factor that an officer may consider. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 

U.S. at 886-87 . In addition, out-of-state license plates are 

entitled to "limited consideration" because they indicate to an 

officer observing them that the vehicle is not merely local 

.,, . .. traffic. United States v. Leyba, 627 F. 2d 1059, 1064 ( 10th Cir. ) cert. 

denied , 4 4 9 U . S . 9 8 7 ( 19 8 0 ) . 

In the instant case, Silva-Moreno's vehicle was in an area 

110 air miles from the border. His car, a Chevrolet mid-compact 

with Texas license plates, was traveling slower than the flow of 

traffic and was overloaded with at least seven people, all 

apparently of Mexican descent . In addition, the right front 

passenger and driver appeared to be looking for a particular 

address in an area where it had been reported that illegal aliens 

were being harbored in a house. Finally, the officers i nvolved 

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Appellate Case: 90-2282 Document: 010110309423 Date Filed: 09/01/1992 Page: 4
had substantial experience in New Mexico interdicting the flow of 

illegal aliens. 2 We conclude that these facts reasonably 

warranted suspicion that Silva-Moreno's vehicle contained persons 

illegally in this country. 

To support his argument that the district court erred in 

denying his motion to suppress, Silva-Moreno relies on this 

court's holding in Monsisvais. That case involved a vehicle stopped 

near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Border Patrol agents had 

detected a heavily loaded pick-up truck with a camper and Arizona 

license plates travelling at night on a road commonly used to 

skirt a nearby border checkpoint. The Border Patrol agents 

observed the driver slow the pick-up to make an exit and then 

suddenly correct his turn to avoid that exit. Based on those 

facts, the vehicle was stopped and searched. One hundred 

kilograms of marijuana were seized. After a hearing, the 

district court denied the defendant's motion to suppress. We 

reversed, holding that the facts, when scrutinized, did not 

reasonably warrant suspicion that the defendant's vehicle 

contained persons illegally in the country. 

Monsisvais does not control here. The evidence in the record 

in Monsisvais was seriously inadequate. The record in Monsisvais, 

unlike that here, did not include information regarding recent 

illegal immigrant activity in the area, the proximity of the area 

2

0fficer Dominguez testified that he had worked with the 

United States Border Patrol in the area since 1971. Agent Smith 

testified that he had been a Border Patrol agent in that area since 

1972. 

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Appellate Case: 90-2282 Document: 010110309423 Date Filed: 09/01/1992 Page: 5
to the border or details of the agents' previous experience with 

alien traffic. Moreover, the agents in Monsisvais, unlike those 

here, could not see the passengers and therefore had to speculate 

as to the nature of the vehicle's heavy load. Finally, in this 

case, the conduct of the driver and right front passenger in 

looking for a particular address in the vicinity of a residence 

suspected of harboring illegal aliens is a significant factor not 

present in Monsisvais. 

We hold that the record before us established reasonable 

suspicion that Silva-Moreno's vehicle contained persons illegally 

in this country, and therefore the investigative stop was proper. 

Therefore the trial judge did not err in denying the motion to 

suppress. 

AFFIRMED. 

Entered for the Court 

Jim R. Carrigan 

District Judge 

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Appellate Case: 90-2282 Document: 010110309423 Date Filed: 09/01/1992 Page: 6