Court Opinion

ID: 9492194
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:34:30.577893+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:09.992957
License: Public Domain

EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I agree with the majority opinion that the success of Lopez’s motion to suppress evidence depends on whether the officers had reasonable suspicion • to stop Lopez’s vehicle. See Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 440, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 2754, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980) (“[A]ny curtailment of a person’s liberty by the police must be supported at least by a reasonable and articu-lable suspicion that the person seized is engaged in criminal activity.”). However, I disagree that the officers lacked reasonable suspicion to stop Lopez’s vehicle. Accordingly, I dissent.
The district court denied Lopez’s motion to suppress, finding that the officers had a reasonable suspicion that Lopez’s vehicle was involved in criminal activity. When reviewing such a ruling, we review a dis*290trict court’s factual findings “under the clearly erroneous standard.” United States v. Inocencio, 40 F.3d 716, 721 (5th Cir.1994). “The conclusions of law derived from a district court’s findings of fact, such as whether a reasonable suspicion existed to stop a vehicle, are reviewed de novo.” Id.
The Supreme Court has made clear that “any number of factors may be taken into account in deciding whether there is reasonable suspicion to stop a car” near the border. United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 884, 95 S.Ct/2674, 2582, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975). These factors include: (1) the characteristics of the area; (2) proximity to the border; (3) the usual traffic patterns on the particular road; (4) previous experience with alien traffic; (5) information about recent illegal border crossings in the area; (6) the driver’s behavior; (7) aspects of the vehicle itself; (8) the vehicle’s appearance; (9) whether the vehicle has an extraordinary number of passengers; (10) whether passengers are attempting to hide; and (11) the appearance of the driver and passengers. See United States v. Jones, 149 F.3d 364, 367 (5th Cir.1998) (citing Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 884-85, 95 S.Ct. at 2582). A court’s inquiry into reasonable suspicion “is not limited to an analysis of any one factor.” Inocencio, 40 F.3d at 722. “Rather, a finding of reasonable suspicion must be based on the ‘totality of the circumstances known to the agent and the agent’s experience in evaluating such circumstances.’ ” Jones, 149 F.3d at 367 (quoting United States v. Casteneda, 951 F.2d 44, 47 (5th Cir.1992)).
The totality of the circumstances known to Federal Agent Mizell gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that Lopez was involved in transporting illegal aliens. Mi-zell’s testimony addressed several of the Brignoni-Ponce factors. Mizell testified that he stopped Lopez on FM 2644, twenty miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. FM 2644 comes directly from El Indio on the U.S.-Mexico border. FM 2644 was the
only road circumventing the Highway 277 checkpoint. Moreover, the checkpoint on Highway 277 was operational at the time Lopez was stopped. The fact that a road circumvents an immigration checkpoint is relevant to establishing reasonable suspicion. See, e.g., United States v. Aldaco, 168 F.3d 148, 152 (5th Cir.1999); Inocen-cio, 40 F.3d at 723 (5th Cir.1994); United States v. Ramirez-Lujan, 976 F.2d 930, 932, 934 (5th Cir.1992). Finally, Mizell testified that there were “a lot of people” in Lopez’s four-door Buick, and that the passengers were “piled in there.” Such testimony shows that Mizell saw “an extraordinary number of passengers” in Lopez’s car. Jones, 149 F.3d at 367. According to Mizell, the number of people in the car was “unusual.”
These articulable facts created a reasonable suspicion that Lopez’s vehicle was involved in transporting illegal aliens. Accordingly, the district court did not err in finding that the officers’ stop of Lopez’s vehicle was constitutionally permissible. I would uphold the district court’s denial of Lopez’s motion to suppress and affirm her conviction.