U.S. v. Jaime, 04-41700.

• Decision Date: 15 December 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-41700.,04-41700.
• Citation: 473 F.3d 178
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Veronica JAIME, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 178

473 F.3d 178

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Veronica JAIME, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 04-41700.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

December 15, 2006.

Michelle Palacios (argued), McAllen, TX, James Lee Turner, John Richard Berry, Asst. U.S. Attys., Houston, TX, for U.S.

Alonzo Ramos (argued), Laredo, TX, for Jaime.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before KING, GARWOOD and JOLLY, Circuit Judges.

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-appellee Veronica Jaime (Jaime) is charged in a two count indictment with having, on or about October 1, 2003, possessed less than fifty kilograms of marihuana with intent to distribute it and having conspired to do so, contrary to 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(D) and 846. The United States appeals the district court's pre-trial order granting Jaime's motion to suppress evidence obtained in a search of Jaime's suitcase while she was a passenger on a bus stopped at a fixed immigration checkpoint. We vacate and remand.

Facts and Proceedings Below

On October 1, 2003, Jaime was a passenger on a Greyhound bus traveling north when it was stopped at the permanent immigration inspection station fifteen miles north of Laredo, Texas, on Interstate 35. Border Patrol Agent Corey Grubbs boarded the bus at its front to perform an immigration inspection of all the passengers. He was the only agent on the bus. Agent Grubbs proceeded to move down the aisle of the bus, asking each passenger (other than those who were "handing me immigration documents") in turn to state his or her citizenship and travel plans. Jaime was seated in an aisle seat slightly in front of the middle of the bus. The window seat next to her was unoccupied. There were some passengers in front of her and some behind her. When Agent Grubbs reached Jaime, he asked her to state her citizenship. Jaime replied that she was a United States citizen. Agent Grubbs then asked Jaime about her travel plans and she responded accordingly. The interview was conducted entirely in English.

Agent Grubbs then asked Jaime whether a suitcase on the floor in front of the window seat next to her belonged to her.¹ He testified that he found the bag's presence odd, and "believed there might be narcotics in it," because, in his experience, most people placed baggage of that size in the checked luggage compartment of the bus.² Jaime confirmed the bag was hers and Agent Grubbs then asked whether he could look inside it.³ Jaime consented, and opened the front pocket of the bag, revealing only clothing. Agent Grubbs then asked Jaime to open the back pocket of the bag. She did so and, upon Jaime opening the back pocket, Agent Grubbs immediately recognized what appeared to be a bundle of marihuana.⁴ Agent Grubbs removed Jaime and her bag from the bus, and then reboarded the bus to complete his immigration inspection of the remaining passengers.

Agent Grubbs testified that his questions to Jaime were "asked one right after the other" and that from the time he "asked her if she was a U.S. citizen" to the time when he "actually got consent to look in the bag", the total amount of time that "had elapsed" was "maybe ten seconds." Agent Grubbs also stated that by the time he escorted Jaime off the bus, no more than a minute had been spent with Jaime. Agent Grubbs admitted that he was satisfied that Jaime was a United States citizen within the first ten seconds, after the initial two questions, and that asking for consent to search the bag did not "have anything to do with immigration status" but "didn't extend what is customary" for him "to interview somebody for immigration purposes." He also testified that he was not acting in an intimidating or coercive manner when he asked for consent to search Jaime's bag and that "she was not in custody" then. He stated that Jaime seemed cooperative and did not hesitate to open her bag.⁵

The district court concluded that the evidence should be suppressed under the most recent circuit precedent, although the court noted its belief that the state of the law was "unsatisfactory" on this issue and that "Ms. Jaime is getting an absolutely undeserved windfall on this." The court then issued a written "memorandum and order" granting Jaime's motion to suppress. The court there ruled that with respect to Jaime the valid immigration fixed checkpoint suspicionless detention terminated as soon as Agent Grubbs was satisfied of her citizenship, which was immediately after she stated her travel plans, and accordingly any further detention was unconstitutional.⁶ Referring to our decisions in United States v. Portillo-Aguirre, 311 F.3d 647 (5th Cir.2002), United States v. Chacon, 330 F.3d 323 (5th Cir.2003), and United States v. Machuca-Barrera, 261 F.3d 425 (5th Cir.2001), the court concluded that "the Portillo-Aguirre/Chacon `subjective motivation' test — and not the former Machuca-Barrera `duration' test — is the standard for evaluating the propriety of a seizure at an immigration checkpoint," and that "absent reasonable suspicion, an agent may not continue to question an individual stopped at an immigration checkpoint after becoming satisfied as to that individual's immigration status." The court held that "the immigration purpose of the stop was complete" at the "moment" Agent Grubbs was satisfied as to Jaime's immigration status, and, there being no reasonable suspicion, from that instant on Jaime was under "illegal detention." The court held that the search was not validated by Jaime's consent because it was requested and given after — albeit virtually immediately after — Agent Grubbs became satisfied as to Jaime's immigration status, and "no circumstances intervened between the detention and the consent," and "[t]herefore, no matter how voluntarily Defendant gave her consent, the search was impermissible."

Discussion

A. Standard of Review

Reviewing a district court's ruling on a motion to suppress, this court accepts the district court's factual findings "unless clearly erroneous or influenced by an incorrect view of the law." United States v. Alvarez, 6 F.3d 287, 289 (5th Cir.1993). The district court's conclusions of law are reviewed de novo. Id. To the extent the underlying facts are undisputed we may resolve questions such as probable cause and reasonable suspicion as questions of law. United States v. Ibarra-Sanchez, 199 F.3d 753, 758 (5th Cir.1999).

B. Detention

At a fixed checkpoint having the primary purpose of identifying illegal immigrants, vehicles may be briefly detained in furtherance of that purpose and their occupants questioned, all without either a warrant or any individualized reasonable suspicion, but "checkpoint searches are constitutional only if justified by consent or probable cause to search" and "[a]ny further detention . . . must be based on consent or probable cause." United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 3087, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).⁷

In City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 121 S.Ct. 447, 148 L.Ed.2d 333 (2000), the Supreme Court held invalid a highway checkpoint program concededly having "the primary purpose of interdicting illegal narcotics," id. at 453, stating "we decline to approve a program whose primary purpose is ultimately indistinguishable from the general interest in crime control." Id. at 455.⁸ At such checkpoints, "stops can only be justified by some quantum of individualized suspicion." Id. at 457. Edmond goes on to state that its holding "does not impair the ability" of officers to act on "information they properly learn during a checkpoint stop justified by a lawful primary purpose," even though that results in "arrest . . . for an offense unrelated to that purpose." Id. Immediately thereafter, Edmond explains "that the purpose inquiry in this context is to be conducted only at the programmatic level and is not an invitation to probe the minds of individual officers acting at the scene. Cf. Whren [v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996)], supra." (emphasis added).⁹

As noted, the district court ruled that Jaime's consent to the search of her bag was invalid, "no matter how voluntarily [she] gave her consent," because it was given while she was under illegal detention and "no circumstances intervened between the detention and consent." The central issue on this appeal is the correctness of the district court's legal conclusion that Jaime was then under illegal detention because virtually immediately before Agent Grubbs asked for, and Jaime gave, her consent, he had (as reflected only by his admission at the suppression hearing) subjectively satisfied himself (on the basis of her answers to his initial two questions) as to her citizenship. The district court reached this conclusion notwithstanding that Agent Grubbs's credited testimony reflects that no more than approximately ten seconds elapsed between his initial encounter with Jaime and his asking and receiving the consent to search, and that the total elapsed time from his initial question of Jaime to her giving of consent to search her bag was not greater than what was customary to interview somebody for immigration purposes.

In its resolution of this legal issue the district court, and the parties below and on this appeal, focused mainly on our decisions in Machuca-Barrera, Chacon and Portillo-Aguirre. The district court concluded that the latter two cases essentially supplanted Machuca-Barrera and controlled outcome here. We disagree, and accordingly vacate the district court's order and remand.

In Machuca-Barrera, we addressed the validity of a suspicionless consent based search at a fixed immigration checkpoint in light of Martinez-Fuerte and Edmond. The evidence there showed that late on a Sunday afternoon the 19-year-old defendant Machuca-Barrera, accompanied by a 15-year-old-male companion, drove his car to the...