Court Opinion

ID: 9495101
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:54:12.136853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:48.410174
License: Public Domain

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I believe that Salgado’s un-Mirandized statements to INS Agent Lundgren and Police Officer Holz should have been suppressed because they were the result of custodial interrogation. Accordingly, I dissent.
The majority correctly recites the test for determining whether questioning is interrogation within the meaning of Miranda: “whether under all of the circumstances involved in a given ease, the questions are reasonably likely to . elicit an incriminating response from the suspect.” Solano-Godines, 120 F.3d at 961 (citations omitted). However, the majority by-passes what I regard as the most critical fact in this case: INS Agent Lundgren’s and Police Officer Holz’s questioning was the product of a cooperative arrangement between the INS and the Orange County Jail (“Jail”), the purpose of which was to identify Jail detainees who were in the United States illegally and facilitate the initiation of civil and criminal INS proceedings against them.
The cooperative arrangement worked as follows. Jail detainees were asked about their place of birth and country of citizenship during the Jail’s routine booking process. When a detainee responded that he was born outside the United States and was not a United States citizen, he was immediately referred to INS agents who were stationed and had offices at the Jail. An INS agent would then ask the detainee about his place of birth, country of citizenship, manner of entry into the United States, and the length of time he had been in the United States. The INS agent would record the detainee’s responses to these questions on a form that was reviewed by agents in the criminal prosecutions unit of the INS. Based in part on the information on that form, agents in the criminal prosecutions unit of the INS would decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings against the detainee.
INS Agent Lundgren was stationed at the Jail as part of this cooperative arrangement. She questioned Salgado after Salgado’s responses to the Jail’s booking questions suggested that he might be in the United States illegally. Because of the cooperative arrangement between the INS and the Jail, INS Agent Lundgren knew— from reading Salgado’s responses to the questions on the Jail’s booking form — that Salgado was born in Mexico, that he was a Mexican citizen, and that he spoke only Spanish. INS Agent Lundgren also knew that Salgado’s answers to her questions would be reviewed by agents in the criminal prosecutions unit of the INS. Finally, INS Agent Lundgren knew, or reasonably should have known, that Salgado’s responses to her questions about his place of birth, citizenship, manner of entry into the United States, and the length of time that he had been in the United States could be used against him in criminal prosecutions for illegal entry1 and illegal reentry following deportation (the offense Salgado was ultimately convicted of committing).
*1176We have held that “in-custody questioning by INS investigators must be preceded by Miranda warnings, if the questioning is reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.” Mata-Abundiz, 717 F.2d at 1280. Under these circumstances, I believe that INS Agent Lundgren’s questioning was reasonably likely to incriminate Salgado and, thus, constituted interrogation.
The majority relies heavily on our decision in Solano-Godines in support of its conclusion that INS Agent Lundgren’s questions were not interrogation. In Sola-no-Godines, we held that an Immigration Judge need not give Miranda warnings before questioning a detainee at a civil deportation hearing because “[t]he immigration judge could not be expected to anticipate that two years later [the defendant] would illegally reenter the United States and that his responses to questions at his civil deportation hearing might incriminate him in a prosecution for this future crime.” Solano-Godines, 120 F.3d at 962.
Because the circumstances of Solano-Godines are significantly different from those in this case, our conclusion in Sola-no-Godines should not control here. While the Immigration Judge’s questions in Solano-Godines were asked during a civil deportation hearing, INS Agent Lundgren’s questions were asked as part of an ongoing INS investigation which was intended to uncover violators of immigration laws. INS Agent Lundgren knew that Salgado’s statements would be reviewed by agents in the criminal prosecutions unit of the INS, and that Salgado’s admissions to INS Agent Lundgren — that he entered the United States illegally and had remained in the United States for over one year — could immediately have been used to prosecute Salgado for illegal entry.
I find it inconsequential to this analysis that the statements INS Agent Lundgren elicited from Salgado were not used against Salgado until over a year later, when he illegally reentered the United States. The test is whether INS Agent Lundgren’s questions were “reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response” when they were asked, not whether or when Salgado’s incriminating responses to INS Agent Lundgren’s questions were ultimately used against him. Innis, 446 U.S. at 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682. INS Agent Lundgren’s questions constituted interrogation because Salgado’s admissions to INS Agent Lundgren — that he was a Mexican citizen who had entered the United States illegally and had remained in the United States for over one year — could have been used against him in a criminal prosecution for illegal entry as soon as they were uttered.
I further find it inconsequential that INS Agent Lundgren was a “civil” investigator who had no role in determining whether Salgado would be criminally prosecuted. Criminal INS investigators had access to all of the information gathered through “civil” interviews at the Jail, and INS Agent Lundgren knew that Salgado’s statements to her would be placed in a file that was reviewed by a criminal INS investigator and could serve as admissions in a criminal prosecution. As we have observed, “[c]ivil as well as criminal interrogation of in-custody defendants by INS investigators should generally be accompanied by the Miranda warnings,” and the INS cannot insulate agents from the obligation to give Miranda warnings “by placing a ‘civil’ label on the investigation.” Mata-Abundiz, 717 F.2d at 1279-80.
Finally, I find it inconsequential that Salgado was detained at the Jail on a misdemeanor weapons charge, and not an immigration violation, when he was interviewed by INS Agent Lundgren. The very purpose of the cooperative arrange*1177ment between the INS and the Jail was to give the INS information about and access to Jail detainees who were reasonably likely to be in violation of immigration laws, even though they were not arrested or detained at the Jail for those immigration violations. In this case, INS Agent Lund-gren interviewed Salgado because Salgado had indicated, during the Jail’s booking process for the misdemeanor weapons charge, that he was born in Mexico and was a Mexican citizen. Thus, because of this cooperative arrangement between the INS and the Jail, INS Agent Lundgren had information about Salgado — independent of the basis for his arrest — that made her questions “reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.” Innis, 446 U.S. at 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682.
In sum, having considered all of the circumstances of this case, I find that INS Agent Lundgren’s questions were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from Salgado, and therefore conclude that INS Agent Lundgren should have given Salgado Miranda warnings before questioning him.
I also find that Police Officer Holz’s questions about Salgado’s place of birth and citizenship, asked as part of the Jail’s booking process, constituted custodial interrogation. We have recognized that routine booking questions will constitute custodial interrogation “where the elicitation of information regarding immigration status is reasonably likely to inculpate the respondent.” United States v. Gonzalez-Sandoval, 894 F.2d 1043, 1046 (9th Cir.1990). Police Officer Holz’s questioning amounted to custodial interrogation that was “reasonably likely to inculpate” Salga-do because the Jail’s standard booking questions about Salgado’s immigration status and place of birth were the first phase of the cooperative arrangement between the Jail and the INS that directly led to Salgado’s criminal prosecution for illegal reentry.2 Id. Accordingly, I would find that Police Officer Holz should have given Salgado Miranda warnings before questioning him.

. 8 U.S.C. § 1325 provides that "[a]ny alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers ... shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under Title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under Title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.”

. After Police Officer Holz asked Salgado the Jail's standard booking questions and Salgado identified himself as a Mexican citizen who was born in Mexico, Salgado was referred to INS Agent Haroldsen, who was stationed at the Jail. INS Agent Haroldsen asked Salgado the same questions asked by INS Agent Lund-gren, and Salgado gave the same answers— including that he entered the United States without inspection, and that he had been in the United States illegally for over one year. Based in part on Salgado’s admissions to INS Agent Haroldsen, Salgado was referred to INS Agent Wilson in the criminal prosecutions unit of the INS. Shortly thereafter, INS Agent Wilson arrested Salgado for illegal reentry following deportation.