Court Opinion

ID: 9492077
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:31:28.443619+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:05.697303
License: Public Domain

TROTT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Agent Cole’s suspicion was based on six factors: the type of vehicle, the slow speed at which the vehicle was travelling, the driver’s preoccupation, the vehicle’s registration, Interstate 10’s reputation as a corridor for alien smuggling, and the túne of the evening when the stop took place. The majority holds that these factors, taken together, do not support a “reasonable suspicion” justifying a brief investigatory stop of a vehicle. I disagree.
The dispositive factor in this case is that the pickup, while having Arizona plates, was registered to a Mexican resident from an area where there had recently been an increase in alien smuggling. This is precisely the type of specific, articulable fact, which, together with objective and reasonable inferences, forms a reasonable basis for suspecting alien smuggling is afoot. See U.S. v. Franco-Munoz, 952 F.2d 1055, 1057 (9th Cir.1991) (holding that the fact that an area is “notorious” for alien smuggling supports reasonable suspicion).
The majority asserts that the vehicle’s Mexican registration does not support a reasonable inference of “recent border access.” Indeed, the majority refers to this as a “quantum leap in logic.” It must be remembered, however, that reasonable suspicion need not be inconsistent with innocence. Id. Rather, “the relevant inquiry is not whether the particular conduct *757is ‘innocent’ or ‘guilty,’ but the degree of suspicion that attaches to particular types of noncriminal acts.” United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 10, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989) (quotation omitted). Border patrol agents, not courts, are trained to detect smugglers, and “[t]he facts are to be interpreted in light of a trained officer’s experience.” U.S. v. Michael R., 90 F.3d 340, 346 (9th Cir.1996). The facts presented here support the conclusion that Agent Cole, in light of his eleven years of experience as a border patrol agent and his eight years patrolling Interstate 10, acted with reasonable suspicion. The district court’s denial of the motion to suppress should be upheld, and I respectfully dissent.