Opinion ID: 2754124
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Involuntary Detention Enhancement

Text: The Guidelines provide for a two-level enhancement “[i]f an alien was involuntarily detained through coercion or threat, or in connection with a demand for payment, (i) after the alien was smuggled into the United States; or (ii) while the alien was transported or harbored in the United States.” U.S.S.G. § 2L1.1(b)(8)(A). The district court found that aliens were involuntarily detained both in connection with a 7 Gamez Reyes does not challenge the credibility of that statement on appeal. He did challenge the statement before the district court, but his conclusory argument that “juveniles can easily lie for a wide variety of reasons,” is not persuasive and does not demonstrate that this evidence was false or unreliable. 16 UNITED STATES V. GAMEZ REYES demand for payment and through coercion or threat. As with the unaccompanied minor enhancement, the district court applied the “reasonably foreseeable” test articulated in section 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) to impose the involuntary detention enhancement. The district court did not clearly err in finding that this particular smuggling organization detained aliens both in connection with a demand for payment and through coercion or threat. The investigation into this smuggling organization began after two women threw a note out of a barred window claiming they were being held captive. It is undisputed that the Compton stash house had bars on the windows, guards on watch, locks on the doors, an aggressive pitbull, and an unloaded rifle in plain sight. In their interviews with ICE agents, the aliens provided further information about the Compton stash house conditions. One alien claimed that a guard sat next to the door to prevent the aliens from leaving and that he also controlled access to the bathroom. One of the women who threw the note out of the window claimed that men arriving at the house were instructed to remove their shoes, shirts, and belts; when one man inquired why, a guard beat him. She also described a guard restricting use of the bathroom and shower, and she observed the guard named Pablo walk around with a pistol. Both of the women who threw out the note stated that Pablo doubled their smuggling fee once they arrived and told them that if they tried to escape they would be killed. An alien who was held for four months at the Lynwood stash house told ICE agents that he witnessed a guard threaten female aliens that if they wanted a shower, blankets, or a jacket, they had to have sex with the guard. He also witnessed guards carrying guns, and when he attempted to escape, one of the guards caught him, threw him in a closet, and punched him in the face. UNITED STATES V. GAMEZ REYES 17 As our sister circuits have recognized, these are coercive and threatening conditions. See, e.g., United States v. Alapizco-Valenzuela, 546 F.3d 1208, 1217–19 (10th Cir. 2008) (involuntary detention enhancement properly applied where aliens forced at gunpoint to give up their personal belongings and phone family members and friends for additional money to pay the smugglers, had to remain hidden in the stash houses without food or drink, were not free to leave, and feared for their lives and physical safety); United States v. DeLeon, 484 F. App’x 920, 934 (5th Cir. 2012) (per curiam) (exits of stash house were boarded up and/or padlocked from the outside to prevent escape); United States v. Gonzalez-Mendoza, 401 F. App’x 997, 998 (5th Cir. 2010) (per curiam) (aliens detained in stash houses under armed guard, smugglers demanded additional payments, and firearms located in stash houses). Further, the district court did not clearly err, despite the government’s recommendation against applying an involuntary detention enhancement, in finding that it was reasonably foreseeable to Gamez Reyes that the organization would detain aliens through coercion or threat or in connection with a demand for payment. Gamez Reyes was a frequent visitor to the Compton house, where he would have witnessed the aliens without shoes, the bars on the windows, guards keeping watch, the aggressive dog, and a gun in plain sight. He was directly responsible for securing the stash houses, was in constant contact with the guards, and significantly, was in charge of collecting the smuggling fees. The evidence shows that Gamez Reyes was in particularly close contact with the guard named Pablo, who threateningly demanded additional smuggling fees. Even if Gamez Reyes did not personally threaten any aliens, demand additional payments, or condone the guards’ demands of sexual favors 18 UNITED STATES V. GAMEZ REYES from female aliens in return for bathroom privileges, it was reasonably foreseeable to him that others in the smuggling ring would use these threatening tactics to detain the aliens. See U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 cmt. n.2(c)(6); see also AlapizcoValenzuela, 546 F.3d at 1219 (district court reasonably inferred defendant knew aliens were being held against their will when he arrived at a stash house and saw aliens without shoes or personal belongings and armed guards keeping watch over them). Therefore, the district court did not err in imposing the involuntary detention enhancement. See, e.g., United States v. Miguel, 368 F.3d 1150, 1156 (9th Cir. 2004) (district court properly found it reasonably foreseeable that child transported through desert in alien smuggling organization would sustain bodily injury); United States v. Li, 206 F.3d 78, 86 (1st Cir. 2000) (district court did not err in finding that “shoddy conditions, meager provisions, and inadequate safety measures” on ship smuggling Chinese nationals into United States were reasonably foreseeable to defendants, even those defendants not present on the ship).