Opinion ID: 671503
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Usual Patterns of Traffic on the Particular Road

Text: 19 Agent Jones' comparisons between Lopez-Martinez's actions and the usual patterns of traffic on the crossover road between Interstate 25 and Highway 185, and Highway 185 itself, further supports the court's finding. Agent Jones testified that because July is green chile harvesting season, farm traffic along these routes is heavy at dawn, but nearly nonexistent at 10:00 a.m. when he encountered Lopez-Martinez's van and the sedan. Lopez-Martinez's evidence speaks to the daily volume of traffic along these thoroughfares, but in no way refutes Agent Jones' testimony that the traffic is concentrated in the early morning and early afternoon, when farm laborers travel to and from work. Compare Miranda-Enriquez, 941 F.2d at 1084 (agent testified to his inability to predict the likelihood of alien smugglers travelling on highway when stop occurred). 20 D. The Agent's Previous Experience with Alien Traffic and Information about Recent Illegal Border Crossings 21 Consistent with Brignoni-Ponce, we must also accord weight to Agent Jones' eighteen-year experience as a U.S. Border Patrol Agent and his promotion to the rank of Supervisory Border Patrol Agent. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 885, 95 S.Ct. at 2582. Agent Jones has worked in Southern New Mexico for approximately fourteen of his eighteen years as an agent and testified to his familiarity with alien traffic on the roads through Las Cruces and its environs. Agent Jones conceded that he had not received information about recent illegal border crossings in the area, but he explained that alien smuggling precipitously increases during the summer months due to farm employment (between 1,000 and 1,300 aliens are discovered per summer month, as opposed to between 500 and 1,000 during other months). E. The Driver's Behavior 22 Additionally probative to our evaluation of Agent Jones' decision to conduct the stop is Lopez-Martinez's driving behavior. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 885, 95 S.Ct. at 2582; United States v. Pollack, 895 F.2d 686, 690 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 985, 111 S.Ct. 520, 112 L.Ed.2d 532 (1990). Lopez-Martinez opted to exit northbound Interstate 25 yet continue to travel north on Highway 185, a well-documented means of circumventing the Las Cruces checkpoint and a less direct northbound route. See Martin, 15 F.3d at 945; see also U.S. v. Guillen-Cazares, 989 F.2d at 383 (acknowledging that agent's discovery of a driver along a road purportedly used to avoid the Truth or Consequences checkpoint weighs in favor of reasonable suspicion); Barbee, 968 F.2d at 1029 (same). 23 In addition to Lopez-Martinez's decision to exit Interstate 25 just south of the known immigration checkpoint yet continue to travel north, Lopez-Martinez appeared to be driving in tandem with a second vehicle and at a speed of 30 miles per hour on an empty road with a posted 55 mile per hour speed limit. The district court reasoned that the slow speed of both the van and the sedan was suspicious because there were no other vehicles in the area and they were driving throughout an area where the posted speed limit was significantly higher. In addition, although Agent Jones drove in an unmarked Border Patrol vehicle, he believed that the driver of the van and the driver of the sedan recognized his vehicle as a police vehicle because of the visible metal security cage separating the front and back seats as well as the fact that Agent Jones wore a uniform. Because maintaining a noticeably slow speed in the presence of a police officer may suggest nervousness, we cannot accept the dissent's conclusion that the speed of the vehicles is simply irrelevant when considered in the totality of the circumstances. 24 Next, Agent Jones explained that aliens are often smuggled in caravans to enable a lead vehicle to determine whether a known checkpoint is open. We have held that the mere existence of two cars, proceeding closely together and turning south on I-25 does not evoke the same types of suspicions as other situations and maneuvers found in roving border patrol cases. Guillen-Cazares, 989 F.2d at 383. Whereas we found nothing inherently suspicious about the two vehicles in Guillen-Cazares entering Interstate 25 south, here Agent Jones noted that Lopez-Martinez's van and the sedan exited Interstate 25 north just south of the Las Cruces checkpoint, drove past the few retail establishments along the way, and proceeded north on Highway 185. That the vehicles in the instant case drove close together at the same slow pace and only separated when Agent Jones passed the sedan gave further grounds for reasonable suspicion. F. Aspects and Appearance of the Vehicle 25 Although Agent Jones acknowledged that neither vehicle appeared to be heavily loaded, Barbee, 968 F.2d at 1029, Lopez-Martinez's van could transport several passengers hidden from passersby. Pollack, 895 F.2d at 690 (suspect was driving a large vehicle capable of hauling a large number of people); Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 885, 95 S.Ct. at 2582 (identifying station wagons with large compartments for fold-down seats or spare tires as popular vehicles in which to transport concealed aliens). In addition to noticing four Hispanic passengers in the sedan, Id., Agent Jones watched as a passenger in the van peered out the rear window and then disappeared. Barbee, 968 F.2d at 1029 (Also important is that the agent making the stop observed the passengers sinking down in an apparent effort to avoid detection.). 26 To be sure, the fact that the passengers appeared to be Hispanic could not, by itself, create the reasonable suspicion required under the Fourth Amendment to conduct a roving border patrol stop. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 886-87, 95 S.Ct. at 2583. As the dissent correctly points out, the overwhelming number of Hispanics in this country are United States citizens, not illegal aliens. However, the Court in Brignoni-Ponce explained that Mexican appearance [is] a relevant factor when the stop occurs near the United States-Mexico border. Id.; see also United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 564 n. 17, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 3085 n. 17, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976) (reaffirming that apparent Mexican ancestry ... clearly is relevant [at a checkpoint near the United States-Mexico border]).