Court Opinion

ID: 9843124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:27:58.158337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:37.130251
License: Public Domain

STEPHEN H. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the disposition of this ease. I write separately, however, first because I believe that a pretext analysis is unnecessary; and second, because pretext is simply inapplicable to the stop of a vehicle at a fixed border checkpoint. I therefore do not join Part II of the majority opinion and those portions of Part III which apply a pretext analysis to the stop of Maestas’ vehicle.
I.
The majority’s pretext analysis is unnecessary to the disposition of this case. As I understand it, the majority concludes that the result is controlled by the fact that all cars were being stopped on the day in question. Therefore, the result would be the same, I believe, regardless of the burden of proof or pretext analysis. All the majority needed to do is declare that a discussion of proof or pretext is unnecessary because the result would be the same regardless.
II.
The Fourth Amendment requires that seizures of vehicles be evaluated under a balancing test, weighing the “public interest against the Fourth Amendment interest of the individual.” United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 555, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 3081, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976); see also United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 2578, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975); United States v. Ludlow, 992 F.2d 260, 262 (10th Cir.1993). In the case of fixed border patrol checkpoints, the public interest is strong and compelling.
“It has been national policy for many years to limit immigration into the United States.” Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. at 551, 96 S.Ct. at 3080. Particularly troublesome is the interdiction of “illegal entrants from Mexico [which] poses formidable law enforcement problems.” Id. at 552, 96 S.Ct. at 3080. While the government’s interest in protecting the nation’s borders is at its zenith at the actual borders or their functional equivalents, and the scope of the government’s ability to search and seize persons and vehicles crossing those borders is therefore broadest, the same compelling interest permits the establishment of fixed border checkpoints located within 100 air miles of the United States-Mexico border, such as the one at Truth or Consequences involved in this case. These checkpoints also play an integral role in interdiction efforts, “because the flow of illegal aliens cannot be controlled effectively at the border.” Id. at 556, 96 S.Ct. at 3082.
While the parties have not included in the record in this case any information about the method of operation of the fixed checkpoint at Truth or Consequences, the Supreme Court has described a similar fixed checkpoint as follows:
“Approximately one mile south of the checkpoint is a large black on yellow sign with flashing yellow lights over the highway stating ‘ALL VEHICLES, STOP AHEAD, 1 MILE.’ Three-quarters of a mile further north are two black on yellow signs suspended over the highway with flashing lights stating ‘WATCH FOR BRAKE LIGHTS.’ At the checkpoint, which is also the location of a State of California weighing station, are two large signs with flashing red lights suspended over the highway. These signs each state ‘STOP HERE — U.S. OFFICERS.’ Placed on the highway are a number of orange traffic cones funneling traffic in to two lanes where a Border Patrol agent in full dress uniform, standing behind a white on red ‘STOP’ sign cheeks traffic. Block*1495ing traffic in the unused lanes are official U.S. Border Patrol vehicles with flashing red lights. In addition, there is a permanent building which houses the Border Patrol office and temporary detention facilities. There are also floodlights for nighttime operation.”
United States v. Ortiz, 422 U.S. 891, 893, 95 S.Ct. 2585, 2587, 45 L.Ed.2d 623 (1975) (quoting United States v. Baca, 368 F.Supp. 398, 410-11 (S.D.Cal.1973)). I have no reason to believe that the Truth or Consequences checkpoint is operated in any substantially different way. Perhaps more to the point, the majority opinion cannot show otherwise from the record.
Balanced against the strong public interest in protecting our nation’s borders is the intrusion on the Fourth Amendment interests of the travelling public occasioned by fixed border checkpoints. The Supreme Court has acknowledged that that intrusion is “quite limited”:
The stop does intrude to a limited extent on motorists’ right to “free passage without interruption,” Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 154 [45 S.Ct. 280, 285, 69 L.Ed. 543] (1925), and arguably on their right to personal security. But it involves only a brief detention of travelers during which
“ ‘[a]ll that is required of the vehicle’s occupants is a response to a brief question or two and possibly the production of a document evidencing a right to be in the United States.’”
Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. at 557-58, 96 S.Ct. at 3083 (quoting Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 880, 95 S.Ct. at 2579). Indeed, as the Court further acknowledged, “this practice of stopping automobiles briefly for questioning has a long history evidencing its utility and is accepted by motorists as incident to highway use.” Id. at 561 n. 14, 96 S.Ct. at 3084 n. 14.
In view of this compelling and substantial governmental interest in monitoring the flow of entrants over our borders and the slight intrusion caused by the brief detention of vehicles at fixed border checkpoints, individualized suspicion is not required for such checkpoint stops. Id. at 562, 96 S.Ct. at 3085; see also Ludlow, 992 F.2d at 263. Nor is individualized suspicion required for selective referral to a secondary inspection area. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. at 563, 96 S.Ct. at 3085; Ludlow, 992 F.2d at 263; United States v. Ray, 973 F.2d 840, 842 (10th Cir.1992). In short, Border patrol agents may stop any ear at the fixed border checkpoint, and may refer any car for secondary inspection. Indeed, when the checkpoint is in operation, all ears are effectively “seized” by virtue of having to pass through the checkpoint, and having to stop or slow down to a rolling stop at the stop sign.
The mechanism which prevents abuses of this largely unfettered discretion to stop vehicles at border checkpoints “lies in appropriate limitations on the scope of the stop.” Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. at 567, 96 S.Ct. at 3087. Accordingly, “Border Patrol agents may question occupants of a vehicle concerning citizenship and customs matters and ask them to explain suspicious circumstances or behavior.” Ludlow, 992 F.2d at 264; United States v. Pinedo-Montoya, 966 F.2d 591, 593-94 (10th Cir.1992). They may not, however, routinely search cars or occupants of cars or ask wide-ranging questions about other criminal conduct and “visual inspection of the vehicle is limited to what can be seen without a search.” Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. at 558, 96 S.Ct. at 3083.
Pretext is simply inapplicable to such border checkpoint stops. “[A] pretextual stop occurs when the police use a legal justification to make a stop ... in order to search a person or his vehicle, or interrogate him, for an unrelated and more serious crime for which they do not have the reasonable suspicion necessary to support a stop.” United States v. Morales-Zamora, 974 F.2d 149, 152 (10th Cir.1992). In the case of fixed border checkpoints, all cars are briefly and routinely stopped.1 No reasonable suspicion is necessary. Thus, the border patrol agents’ motivation or reasons for stopping and briefly *1496questioning the occupants of a particular vehicle are irrelevant.
With the possible exception of two Ninth Circuit cases, the majority cites no other circuit or district court case adopting the position it takes, and my research reveals no such case applying a pretext analysis to a fixed checkpoint stop.
Even the two Ninth Circuit cases, United States v. Koshnevis, 979 F.2d 691, 694 (9th Cir.1992), and United States v. Barnett, 935 F.2d 178, 181 (9th Cir.1991), are equivocal. Barnett, upon which Koshnevis relies, only states:
Had [defendants] offered affirmative evidence that the first agent harbored a subjective purpose to refer to secondary inspection for drug-related offenses, we would be required to address the applicability of the cases that deal with “pretextual” seizures to the type of stop authorized by Martinez-Fuerte. But in the absence of that evidence, we need not reflect upon the applicability of Martinez-Fuerte to referrals where it appears that the referral is only (or even partially) for drugs.
Barnett, 935 F.2d at 181 (other citations omitted).
The majority therefore attempts to find justification for engaging in its pretext analysis from dicta in Martinez-Fuerte, and from a few cases involving entirely different factual settings with an entirely different balance between governmental and individual Fourth Amendment interests.
With regard to the Martinez-Fuerte dicta, the majority observes that “[t]he Court noted that relying on ethnicity as a factor in deciding who to stop might, under some circumstances, raise constitutional difficulties.” Maj. op. at 1489 (citing Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. at 564 n. 17, 96 S.Ct. at 3085 n. 17). However, in footnote 17 of Martinez-Fuerte, all the Court did was observe that it had held previously that “apparent Mexican ancestry by itself could not create the reasonable suspicion required for a roving-patrol stop.” Id. (emphasis added) (citing United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975)). There is no question here of a roving-patrol stop; Maestas was stopped at a fixed border checkpoint.2
I find equally unpersuasive the majority’s reliance on the dicta in Martinez-Fuerte that “upon a proper showing, courts would not be powerless to prevent the misuse of checkpoints [near the Mexican border] to harass those of Mexican ancestry.” Id. at 567 n. 19, 96 S.Ct. at 3087 n. 19. The misuse of border checkpoints to impermissibly harass an entire ethnic group is completely different from, and in no way supports, the notion that the subjective motivation of a border patrol agent in stopping any particular vehicle at a border checkpoint could render such a stop pretextual.
Additionally, the cases from our circuit and other circuits upon which the majority relies are distinguishable. In Morales-Zamora, the issue was' whether the entire driver’s license checkpoint was invalid as pretextual because it was admittedly established to search for ears carrying drugs, not for cars with unlicensed drivers. By contrast, Maestas does not dispute the validity of the fixed border checkpoint — she only challenges the particular decision to stop her car. Similarly, the District of Columbia Circuit in United States v. McFayden, 865 F.2d 1306, 1312 (D.C.Cir.1989), addressed an allegation that the entire temporary driver’s license checkpoint was a subterfuge to catch drug dealers. That, again, is an entirely different proposition from what is before us in this ease. Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 743, 103 S.Ct. 1535, 1544, 75 L.Ed.2d 502 (1983) (plurality opinion), is similarly distinguishable, and, importantly, none of these cases involves the undeniably strong and compelling immigration control interest present in the case of a fixed border checkpoint.
Finally, the inapplicability of a pretext analysis to border checkpoint stops is highlighted by considering the consequence of applying it to such stops. If pretext applies, then a vehicle could be stopped at the checkpoint, and/or referred to secondary, routinely *1497along with all vehicles, or by random selection, or in accordance with some arbitrary selection protocol (i.e. every tenth car), or on the hunch or whim of the border patrol agent, but it could not be stopped if the border patrol agent has some information about the vehicle from some other source. This seems to me to be illogical at best, and unworkable in theory or in practice.

. Indeed, the district court in this case observed that, "[i]t appears that on the afternoon that Maestas was stopped at the checkpoint, everyone regardless of reasonable suspicion, had to pull off 1-25 and go through the checkpoint.” Memorandum and Order at 8, R. Vol. I, Doc 37.

. We reject Maestas' argument that she was really stopped by a roving border patrol using a fixed border checkpoint as its surrogate.