Opinion ID: 474302
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Absence of Articulable Facts and Reasonable Suspicion

Text: 31 In Brignoni-Ponce, the Supreme Court held that roving Border Patrol agents must point to specific articulable facts, together with rational inferences from those facts, that reasonably warrant suspicion that the vehicle they stop contains undocumented aliens. 422 U.S. at 884, 95 S.Ct. at 2582. The Court also held that Hispanic appearance, without more, is insufficient to justify an investigatory stop. Id. at 887, 95 S.Ct. at 2583. In Nicacio v. INS, 768 F.2d 1133, 1137 (9th Cir.1985), we said that Brignoni-Ponce and its progeny hold that Hispanic appearance and presence in an area frequented by illegal aliens do not justify an investigative stop. 32 I agree with the majority that in light of Brignoni-Ponce and Nicacio, the Hispanic appearance of Cervantes-Cuevas, the slowing of his automobile while approaching the Border Patrol vehicle parked behind a pick-up truck, and his resuming normal speed after passing the vehicles are insufficient by themselves to justify his detention. 33 I part company with the majority, however, when it concludes that three other significant factors justify Cervantes-Cuevas's detention. The majority identifies these three additional factors as: (1) the agricultural area where the arrest took place was known through official channels to be highly populated by undocumented Mexican aliens; (2) the officers knew that some of these aliens would flee from their housing units in automobiles to avoid interrogation by agents investigating their status; and (3) Border Patrol agents had seized 500 undocumented aliens in the area that week. In my view, these additional factors provide little, if any, support for a finding of reasonable suspicion. 34 First, the presence of large numbers of undocumented aliens in the area is precisely the type of evidence that we found insufficient to justify a stop in Nicacio, 768 F.2d at 1137. Second, knowledge of the aliens' pattern of flight from housing units is irrelevant. Nothing in the record shows that any officer saw Cervantes-Cuevas flee from a housing unit. Indeed, Border Patrol Officer Anderson, who testified at the suppression hearing, could not even recall specifically stopping Cervantes-Cuevas. By declining to disapprove of the BIA's reliance on this factor to justify the detention, the majority encourages INS stops of persons who appear to be Hispanic and who are found in an area populated by large numbers of undocumented aliens. This INS practice threatens the fourth amendment rights of countless persons of Hispanic ancestry who legally reside, work, and travel in many agricultural and urban communities throughout our circuit. 35 Third, by relying on the seizure of 500 undocumented aliens in the area that week, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and the majority apparently ignore the likelihood that a substantial number of those seizures were themselves illegal. Indeed, this court in Nicacio deemed illegal the 1982-83 arrests of a class of [a]ll persons of Mexican, Latin, or Hispanic appearance who have been, are, or will be travelling by motor vehicle on Washington highways. 768 F.2d at 1135. Most of the arrests in Nicacio occurred around the town of Yakima, in the central part of Washington. See Nicacio v. INS, 595 F.Supp. 19, 21 (E.D.Wash.1984), aff'd, 768 F.2d at 1133. Although Cervantes-Cuevas is not a member of the class certified in Nicacio, he was arrested in 1982 in Yakima County. When, as here, the arresting officer admits not remembering the specific arrest, it is anomalous for the BIA and this court to hold that mass arrests resembling those recently disapproved in Nicacio contributed to reasonable suspicion. In sum, I believe that the additional facts upon which Agent Anderson relied were either irrelevant to this case or are insufficient to support reasonable suspicion.