Opinion ID: 162189
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Continuing Detention

Text: Mr. Favela further argues that, once Officer Nabors made the initial stop, he had no legitimate basis for the questioning about the identity of the passengers or their immigration status. Again, he maintains that Officer Nabors’s motivation was race-based, and that the continuing detention therefore violated the Fourth Amendment. We analyze this argument under the framework set forth in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 (1968), asking whether Officer Nabor’s continuing detention of Mr Favela “was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place.” see Botero-Ospina, 71 F.3d at 786. Under the Fourth Amendment, a police officer conducting a traffic stop may request vehicle registration and a driver’s license, run a computer check, and issue a citation. United States v. Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d at 1345, 1349 (10th Cir. 1998). He or she may also ask about “travel plans . . . and the ownership of the -11- car.” United States v. Rivera, 867 F.2d 1261, 1263 (10th Cir. 1989). However, after the officer has issued the citation and the driver has produced a valid license and proof that he is entitled to operate the car, the officer must allow him to proceed on his way without further delay. United States v. Holt, 264 F.3d 1215, 1221 (10th Cir. 2001) (en banc). In two circumstances, the officer may engage in additional questioning: (1) if he or she “has an objectively reasonable and articulable suspicion that illegal activity has occurred or is occurring;” and (2) if the subject of the additional interrogation consents to it. United States v. Gonzalez-Lerma, 14 F.3d 1479, 1483 (10th Cir. 1994) (citation omitted). In assessing what constitutes an objectively reasonable suspicion of illegal activity, we defer to “the ability of a trained law enforcement officer to distinguish between innocent and suspicious actions.” See United States v. McCrae, 81 F.3d 1528, 1534 (10th Cir. 1996) (internal quotation marks omitted). We assess the officer’s conduct in the light of common sense and ordinary human experience, considering the totality of the circumstances. United States v. Melendez-Garcia, 28 F.3d 1046, 1051 (10th Cir. 1994). This traffic stop jurisprudence does not support Mr. Favela’s argument. Officer Nabor’s initial questions to Mr. Favela concerned his travel plans (i.e. “if [Mr. Favela was on a trip, . . . if [the passengers] were all his family[,] . . . [and] if it was a church function [or] church group”). See Rec. vol. II, at 11. As part -12- of the initial inquiry during a legitimate traffic stop, these questions were not unduly intrusive. See United States v. West, 219 F.3d 1171, 1176 (10th Cir. 2000) (“[Q]uestions about travel plans are routine and may be asked as a matter of course without exceeding the proper scope of a traffic stop”) (internal quotation marks omitted). The next question asked by Officer Nabors—whether the passengers were “legal”—cannot be so easily characterized as a routine question about travel plans. However, at the time that he asked that question, Officer Nabors had several grounds for suspecting illegal activity. First, Mr. Favela’s negative answers to the questions about whether the passengers were family members or a church group eliminated two lawful activities that could explain the presence of such a large number of people in the van. Second, Officer Nabors testified that he had learned of several instances in which vans or other large vehicles had been stopped and officers had discovered illegal aliens being transported across the country. See Rec. vol II, at 6. Some of these stops had been made by the Clinton, Oklahoma Police Department. Based on the totality of the circumstances confronting him, we conclude that Officer Nabors’s question about the immigration status of the passengers was justified by his observations. See United States v. Santana-Garcia, 264 F.3d 1188, 1193 (10th Cir. 2001) (holding that motorists’ negative response to the -13- question “whether they were ‘legal’” established probable cause to arrest them “for suspected violation of federal immigration law”) ; United States v. SalinasCalderon, 728 F.2d 1298, 1301 n.3 (10th Cir. 1984) (stating that “[a] state trooper has general investigatory authority to inquire into possible immigration violations”). We therefore conclude that Officer Nabors’s questioning and the continuing detention of Mr. Favela did not violate the Fourth Amendment.