Court Opinion

ID: 9878075
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-27 16:39:23.316893+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:46:50.799257
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, the Supreme Court said: “The likelihood that any given person of Mexican ancestry is an alien is high enough to make Mexican appearance a relevant factor, but standing alone it does not justify stopping all Mexiean-Americans to ask if they are aliens.” 422 U.S. 873, 886-87, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975). I read this as forbidding use of Hispanic appearance as the basis for an arrest, but not as a basis for taking such a fact into account when decid*448ing whether to conduct an investigation. The facts in this case do not violate such a rule. This should allow Border Patrol agents sufficient leeway to do their job effectively but not enough to encourage discrimination based on nationality.