Opinion ID: 3013221
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lopez v. Aran

Text: Lastly, we believe that the well-reasoned opinion of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Lopez v. Aran, 844 F.2d 898 (1st Cir. 1988), also provides support for the constitutionality of the Checkpoint. Lopez involved a civil suit challenging the procedures of the departure checkpoint at the international airport in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico (“Isla Verde checkpoint”), which, like the Checkpoint in St. Thomas, was also set up under the auspices of section 212 of the INA and 8 C.F.R. § 235.5. The plaintiff in Lopez v. Aran sought a declaratory judgment that the Isla Verde checkpoint violated various constitutional provisions, including the Fourth Amendment. The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit described the Isla Verde checkpoint as follows: INS agents at the Isla Verde International Airport conduct an initial inspection to determine the immigration status of prospective passengers by asking them about their citizenship. The question is usually posed, as we understand it, while the subject is walking toward the departure gate. He or she need not 26 halt — nor necessarily slow down — in order to respond. When a traveller affirms that he or she is a citizen of the United States, and no further suspicion is aroused, the questioning stops and the individual remains free to proceed. On the other hand, if an agent comes to suspect that the traveller is an alien (or if the legality of the person’s immigration status cannot readily be determined), then the individual is referred to secondary inspection. In that phase of the inquiry, the INS officer takes the passenger to another section of the airport for further interrogation. Lopez, 844 F.2d at 906. We view this procedure as materially the same as that employed at the Checkpoint in St. Thomas, except that the Isla Verde checkpoint operates in a less systematic manner. The Lopez Court found the checkpoint stop at Isla Verde “strikingly similar” to the checkpoint stops at issue in Martinez-Fuerte and upheld the constitutionality of the inspection chiefly for that reason. Lopez, 844 F.2d at 905. Comparing the Isla Verde checkpoint to the checkpoints at issue in Martinez-Fuerte, the court noted the following: the inspections occurred at “fixed, plausibly located checkpoints, the existence of which, arguably at least, was practically necessary to control the flow of persons,” Lopez, 844 F.2d at 906 (internal quotations and citation omitted); “the public interest justifying the questioning is legitimate and important,” i.e., “the need to interdict the flow of illegal aliens into the mainland United States,” id.; significant numbers of illegal aliens had been apprehended at the checkpoint, id.; traffic was forewarned of the interrogation, id.; the checkpoints “were operated under a prearranged format and in a ‘regularized manner,’ ” id. at 907; the intrusion was minimal, id.; the scope of the inspections “has been carefully tailored to the goal of intercepting illegal aliens,” id.; and the expectation of privacy within an airport is “at least equally low” as that on a highway. Id. The District Court, here, however, “categorically reject[ed] the United States’ contention that the checkpoint in Lopez is sufficiently similar to the Departure Control Checkpoint here to help [ ] decide this case.” Id. at 559. According to the Court, “the salient fact distinguishing the two 27 checkpoints is that all travelers are stopped at the St. Thomas Departure Control checkpoint,” while Lopez involved only some passengers being questioned “on the fly.” Id. We fail to see the significance of the distinction drawn by the District Court, as the differences between the two checkpoints are immaterial to the Checkpoint’s constitutionality. If anything, the primary inspection at checkpoint in Puerto Rico would seem more likely to offend constitutional principles than the one in the Virgin Islands given both its greater susceptibility to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement and its greater likelihood to arouse feelings of discomfort, fright, or annoyance in lawabiding citizens due to this seeming arbitrariness. See Sitz, 496 U.S. at 453. Therefore, we find that Lopez buttresses our conclusion that the Checkpoint does not offend principles of the Fourth Amendment.