Opinion ID: 326898
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Three Appeals.

Text: 4
5 Martinez-Fuerte appeals from a conviction of transporting illegal aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(2). On June 24, 1974, in Tijuana, Mexico, two Mexican women met an unidentified man who promised to take them into the United States in return for their promises to pay him $200 each once they started working. Using false papers provided by the man, the two women entered the United States at the port of entry at San Ysidro, California. From there, according to the man's instructions, the women traveled by bus to San Diego, where they again met the man and returned the false papers to him. He directed them to Martinez-Fuerte's car. Without asking his passengers where they were going, Martinez-Fuerte drove north towards Los Angeles along Interstate 5. 6 At approximately 8:00 p. m. on June 24, they reached the San Clemente checkpoint. There they were stopped by border patrol agents acting under a warrant of inspection issued by a United States magistrate on June 22, 1974. Martinez-Fuerte was instructed to drive off the highway to a secondary inspection area where an agent questioned him and his two passengers about their rights to be in the United States. Martinez-Fuerte, an immigrant, was lawfully within the country and so demonstrated with appropriate identification. However, in response to the agent's inquiry, the two female passengers admitted being citizens of Mexico, illegally within the United States. Martinez-Fuerte was then arrested and charged with transporting illegal aliens, i. e., those unlawfully in this country. 7 Before trial he moved to suppress all evidence derived from the stop and detention at the checkpoint on the grounds that the stop was made without founded suspicion, probable cause, or valid warrant. On appeal, he challenges his conviction by arguing that this pre-trial motion, which was denied, should have been granted. 8
9 Also on June 24, 1974, Jiminez-Garcia, driving a 1968 Chevrolet, was stopped and detained at the San Clemente checkpoint. There agents discovered that his passenger was an illegal Mexican alien. The passenger had made arrangements with an unknown person in Tijuana to be smuggled into the United States and transported to Los Angeles. Earlier on the day of the stop, the alien had been guided across the border to a certain residence in San Ysidro, where he stayed for a short time before meeting Jiminez-Garcia for the trip north. Jiminez-Garcia was charged with transporting an illegal alien in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(2) and conspiracy to transport an illegal alien in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. The trial court granted his motion to suppress, and the government appeals. 10
11 On June 28, 1974, a border patrol agent at the San Clemente checkpoint stopped the car which Guillen was driving in the company of Medrano-Barragan and the latter's wife. Upon inquiry the agent learned that the two passengers were illegal aliens. Guillen was a United States citizen. Agents then searched the car and discovered three more illegal aliens in the trunk. 1 Medrano-Barragan had led the other aliens across the border at the beach near Tijuana, Mexico, and to a highway in the United States where they piled into Guillen's car for the drive north. Guillen and Medrano-Barragan were charged with inducing illegal entry of aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(4), transporting illegal aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(2), and conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. The trial court granted defendants' motion to suppress, and the government appeals. 12