Opinion ID: 475326
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Specificity of the Entry Warrant

Text: 16 The INS contends that paragraphs two and three of the injunction 4 are invalid. It relies on the District of Columbia Circuit's decision in Blackie's House of Beef v. Castillo, 659 F.2d 1211 (D.C.Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 940, 102 S.Ct. 1432, 71 L.Ed.2d 651 (1982), for the proposition that a factory search may be based on a warrant that identifies no illegal aliens by name. 17 Blackie's rejected the contention that the INS open-ended warrant was comparable to the routine administrative inspection warrant upheld in Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 98 S.Ct. 1816, 56 L.Ed.2d 305 (1978). 659 F.2d at 1218. Instead, it defined a hybrid standard of probable cause applicable to INS enforcement. See 659 F.2d at 1222-25. A showing less than that required for criminal warrants was deemed appropriate because (1) Congress contemplated vigorous INS enforcement, including entries onto private premises to question aliens, and (2) INS activities are not analogous to a criminal investigation where the employer faces no sanctions of any kind for employing illegal aliens. 659 F.2d at 1218. 18 The court in Blackie's, while accepting a hybrid probable cause standard for INS entry warrants, 5 emphasized the need for sufficient safeguards to assure that nothing impermissible would be left to the discretion of the INS agents. 659 F.2d at 1226. We have held that an application for a search warrant must have sufficient specificity to enable the judge to make an independent determination of whether probable cause exists and to prevent the agents from having uncontrolled discretion to rummage everywhere in search of seizable items once lawfully within the premises. United States v. Condo, 782 F.2d 1502, 1505 (9th Cir.1986) (emphasis in original). 19 Here, the district court stopped short of requiring the INS to identify all suspected illegal aliens by name to obtain an entry warrant. But, it required the INS, through the warrant and its supporting affidavits, to provide information of sufficient specificity to assure that finding such persons is reasonably likely. (Emphasis added). 20 At oral argument, we pressed plaintiff's counsel to propose a particularity standard for the INS to use in obtaining entry warrants for factory raids targeted at undocumented aliens. Counsel's inability to propose a workable standard reflects the difficulty of enforcing immigration laws where little documentary or descriptive information is available concerning suspected undocumented aliens. 21 The requirement to identify the suspect(s) by name or to provide enough specific identifying information to assure that the search for that person is reasonably likely to result in finding that person imposes an unreasonable and impractical burden on the INS. We agree with the District of Columbia Circuit that warrants and accompanying affidavits [that] narrow down the field of potentially vulnerable persons to those employees whom INS agents might reasonably believe to be aliens, 659 F.2d at 1226, satisfy the requirements of the Fourth Amendment even where the targeted persons are not identified by name. 6 The specificity that paragraphs two and three of the injunction order demand for entry warrants is not required under the Fourth Amendment.