Pretzantzin v. Holder

736 F.3d 641, 2013 WL 5043539
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJuly 31, 2013
DocketDocket No. 11-2867-AG
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 736 F.3d 641 (Pretzantzin v. Holder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pretzantzin v. Holder, 736 F.3d 641, 2013 WL 5043539 (2d Cir. 2013).

Opinion

WESLEY, Circuit Judge:

In the early morning hours of March 5, 2007, Petitioner Pedro Estanislado Pret-zantzin (“Estanislado Pretzantzin”) awoke to a loud banging; he opened his third-floor bedroom window to see a group of armed, uniformed officers at his apartment building’s front door in Jamaica, New York.1 The officers were from the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and worked for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). Estanislado Pret-zantzin shared the apartment with members of his extended family, including Petitioners Jose Matías Pretzantzin, Pacheco Pretzantzin, Pedro Pacheco-Lopez (“Pacheco-Lopez”), and Juan Miguel Pretzant-lin-Yax.2 Through the open window, the officers informed Estanislado Pretzantzin that they were “the police” and ordered him downstairs to open the door. Estanis-lado Pretzantzin complied.

After confirming that he lived on the third floor, one of the officers led Estanis-lado Pretzantzin back upstairs and ordered him to allow the other officers inside. At no point during the encounter did the officers explain their presence, present a warrant, or request consent to enter the apartment. Once inside, ICE officers rounded up the remaining Petitioners, who were asleep in their beds, assembled them in the living room, and demanded to see their “papers.” It appears that only Pacheco-Lopez — the sole Petitioner who had a passport — was able to comply with the officers’ directive. The officers did not ask Estanislado Pretzantzin whether he had legal status in the United States before arresting him.

All Petitioners were handcuffed and transported to ICE facilities at 26 Federal Plaza, in New York City, where they were notified for the first time that they were in the custody of immigration officials. ICE officers interviewed Petitioners and told them to sign statements that were not read to them in English (which Petitioners speak minimally if at all); these statements were subsequently memorialized on Form I-213s (Record of Deportable/Inad-missible Alien). Petitioners were released from custody later that afternoon and served with Notices to Appear, charging them with removability under Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) § 212(a)(6)(A)(i), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i), as natives and citizens of Guatemala who had entered the United States without inspection.

Following consolidation of their proceedings, Petitioners appeared before Immigration Judge George T. Chew (the “IJ”) and conceded that they were the individuals named in the Notices to Appear, but denied the charges of removability and moved to suppress the evidence against them and terminate their proceedings. Petitioners argued that they were entitled to the suppression of all statements and evidence obtained as a consequence of the nighttime, warrantless raid of their home under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. In opposition, the Government argued, inter alia, that it possessed independent evidence of Petitioners’ alienage. Specifically, the Government claimed that it had obtained Petitioners’ Guatemalan birth certificates from the United States Embassy in Guatemala using Petitioners’ names, [645]*645and that it also had Petitioner Pacheco-Lopez’s criminal history report, arrest record, and fingerprint card from a 1994 theft of services conviction for subway-turnstile jumping. The arrest report listed Guatemala as Pacheco-Lopez’s birthplace.

The Government ostensibly relied on the admission in Petitioners’ motion to suppress (indicating that Petitioners were related) and Pacheco-Lopez’s arrest records (confirming that he was born in Guatemala) to target the United States Embassy in Guatemala for the birth certificate request. In connection with Petitioners’ birth certificates, the Government proffered a Federal Express delivery record label for a package sent from ICE’s facilities at 26 Federal Plaza to the United States Embassy in Guatemala, but it did not submit a copy of the actual birth certificate request or any other evidence bearing on the package’s contents. Following Petitioners’ testimony at a subsequent suppression hearing,3 the IJ invited the Government to proffer a warrant, statements from the officers, or any other evidence to justify their intrusion into Petitioners’ home. The Government, however, declined to do so and explicitly disavowed any reliance on Petitioners’ Form I-213s, choosing to rely instead on Petitioners’ birth certificates and Pacheco-Lopez’s arrest records as the sole evidence of alien-age.

In June 2008, the IJ granted Petitioners’ motion to suppress the Government’s evidence of alienage and terminate the proceedings, finding that the nighttime, warrantless entry into their home and resulting arrests constituted an egregious'violation of Petitioners’ Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. Having found Petitioners’ testimony and supporting affidavits sufficient to establish a prima facie case for suppression, the IJ reasoned that the Government’s failure to offer any justification for the conduct of its agents resolved the issue in Petitioners’ favor. The IJ also rejected the Government’s contention that Petitioners’ birth certificates and Pacheco-Lopez’s arrest records constituted independent evidence of alienage, finding that this evidence could only have been obtained through the use of evidence illegally procured as a result of the raid of Petitioners’ home, namely, Pacheco-Lopez’s passport and Petitioners’ statements.

The Government appealed. In a December 17, 2010 order, the BIA vacated the IJ’s decision. In re Jose Matias Pretzantizin, et al., Nos. A097 535 298/296/297/299/300/301 (B.I.A. Dec. 17, 2010). Relying on INS v. Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. 1032, 104 S.Ct. 3479, 82 L.Ed.2d 778 (1984), for the proposition that identity is never suppressible as the fruit of an unlawful arrest, the BIA found that it need not determine whether Petitioners suffered an egregious violation of their constitutional rights because their birth certificates and Pacheco-Lopez’s arrest records were obtained after the Government had determined their identities. The BIA explained that Petitioners’ birth certificates were obtained from Guatemalan authorities using Petitioners’ insuppressible identities; the BIA offered no similar justification for the independence of Pacheco-Lopez’s arrest records. Lastly, although the Government had expressly declined to rely on Petitioners’ Form I-213s before the IJ, the BIA found this evidence admissible because Petitioners had not argued that their statements were “untrue or unreliable.” In re Pretzantizin, A097 535 298, at 2.

[646]*646Petitioners were subsequently ordered removed to Guatemala and have timely petitioned for review.

Discussion4

“The general rule in a criminal proceeding is that statements and other evidence obtained as a result of an unlawful, warrantless arrest are suppressible if the link between the evidence and the unlawful conduct is not too attenuated.” Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. at 104-41, 104 S.Ct. 3479 (citing Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Agard v. Garland
Second Circuit, 2024
Toxtega-Olin v. Garland
Second Circuit, 2024
Singh v. Garland
Second Circuit, 2023
Roche v. Garland
Second Circuit, 2022
State v. Freeman
344 Conn. 503 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2022)
Heitor v. Barr
Second Circuit, 2020
Ocasio v. Barr
Second Circuit, 2020
De Souza-De Queiroz v. Barr
Second Circuit, 2020
Lopez Canas v. Barr
Second Circuit, 2019
Gregorio Perez Cruz v. William Barr
926 F.3d 1128 (Ninth Circuit, 2019)
Chen v. Barr
Second Circuit, 2019
United States v. Chagoya-Morales
859 F.3d 411 (Seventh Circuit, 2017)
Guillen-Jimenez v. Sessions
685 F. App'x 15 (Second Circuit, 2017)
Zerui Huang v. Lynch
633 F. App'x 559 (Second Circuit, 2016)
Gonzalez-Martinez v. Lynch
614 F. App'x 24 (Second Circuit, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
736 F.3d 641, 2013 WL 5043539, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pretzantzin-v-holder-ca2-2013.