United States v. Salazar

997 F. Supp. 2d 549, 2014 WL 468737, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13944
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedFebruary 3, 2014
DocketNo. DR-13-CR-1359(3)-DAE
StatusPublished

This text of 997 F. Supp. 2d 549 (United States v. Salazar) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Salazar, 997 F. Supp. 2d 549, 2014 WL 468737, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13944 (W.D. Tex. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO SUPPRESS

DAVID ALAN EZRA, Senior District Judge.

Before the Court is a Motion to Suppress all evidence and statements obtained [551]*551after a traffic stop on Texas Highway 131 filed by Defendant Sammy Salazar (“Defendant”). (Dkt. # 52.) The Government filed a response. (Dkt. # 60.) On January 23, 2014, Defendant filed a Supplement to his Motion to Suppress. (Dkt. # 73.) The Court heard argument on January 28, 2014. Assistant United States Attorney Timothy A. Duree, Esq., appeared at the hearing on behalf of the United States (“the Government”); Elizabeth A. O’Con-nell, Esq., appeared at the hearing on behalf of Defendant. Upon careful consideration of the supporting and opposing memoranda and the arguments and testimony at the hearing, as well as the evaluation of the credibility of the witnesses, the Court DENIES Defendant’s Motion to Suppress.

BACKGROUND

On September 24, 2013, Customs and Border Protection Officers set up a temporary “tactical immigration checkpoint” along Texas Highway 131 just south of Spofford, Texas.1 At approximately 9:30 a.m., a Lexus sedan approached the checkpoint. There were three occupants in the vehicle, including the Defendant, in the front passenger seat.

Border Patrol Agents Cary Kuykendall and Caleb Sullivan were working as primary and secondary agents at the tactical checkpoint. Agent Kuykendall asked the occupants of the Lexus whether they were U.S. citizens and where they were headed. All occupants claimed to be U.S. citizens and indicated that they were traveling from Eagle Pass to Uvalde- to perform construction work. The agents doubted the travelers’ story due to several factors: (1) the occupants were not wearing clothes suitable for doing construction work, but rather “street clothes,” (2) Highway 131 was a circuitous route from Eagle Pass to Uvalde and takes substantially longer than using Highways 57 and 83, (3) the use of Highway 131 avoids the permanent Border Patrol checkpoint located near Eagle Pass on Highway 57, and (4) Highway 131 is a well-known and popular smuggling corridor.

Nonetheless, the agents decided to let the vehicle pass and, as the Lexus drove away, a Chevrolet pickup truck entered the checkpoint. There were three immediately visible occupants in the truck — a driver, a female passenger, and a juvenile. The agents asked the occupants whether they were U.S. citizens and where they were headed. The driver responded that he was a U.S. citizen and they were traveling from Eagle Pass to Uvalde for work. The female and the child did not respond to the agent’s questions. The agents then noticed individuals lying down and covered in the back of the truck and ordered the driver, Bobbie Lopez, out of the vehicle. An inspection of the vehicle and its occupants revealed that Lopez was the only U.S. citizen in the truck, and the remaining eleven occupants were all non-U.S. citizens illegally present in the United States.

The agents recalled that the occupants of the Lexus, which had just left the checkpoint, had used essentially the same story as Lopez. Believing that the Lexus was acting as a possible scout vehicle for the truck, Agent Sullivan left the checkpoint to catch up to the Lexus. He began driving north on Highway 131 and while driving, passed the turn off to Highway 1572 — -the road that provides the most direct route between Highway 131 and Uvalde. He noted that when he approached the Lexus [552]*552on Highway 131, it was driving at an abnormally slow speed, well below the marked speed limit of sixty-five miles-per-hour on Highway 131. Additionally, because the Lexus did not turn onto Highway 1572, he further believed that the driver had lied at the checkpoint about his destination. While following the vehicle, he radioed in the license plate number of the Lexus and was informed that the vehicle belonged to a female in New Braunfels, which is located in central Texas, North of San Antonio. However, all three occupants of the Lexus were male and had not mentioned New Braunfels to the agents during the stop at the checkpoint.

At this point, Agent Sullivan turned on his emergency lights and signaled for the Lexus to pull over. Shortly thereafter, the Lexus came to a stop on the side of the highway. The Agent testified that it took him relatively little time to catch up to the Lexus, indicating that the Lexus had been driving well below the posted speed limit for some time and giving the Agent reason to believe the Lexus was waiting for the pickup truck to catch up. The occupants of the Lexus were detained by and Defendant was driven to the Bracketville Border Patrol Station for questioning.2 At the station, Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) Agents Anthony Diez and Orlando Vara arrived and read Defendant his rights. Defendant signed twice, once indicating he understood his rights and once indicating that he waived those rights. He then provided incriminating statements to agents.3 He now seeks to suppress those statements.

DISCUSSION

In his Motion to Suppress, Defendant challenges the stop, arguing that the Border Patrol agents illegally seized him when they stopped his vehicle without reasonable suspicion to believe that illegal activity was afoot. He asserts that all evidence and all statements obtained as a result of the stop must be suppressed as the fruit of a poisonous tree. In a Supplement to his Motion to Suppress, filed a few days before the hearing, he also challenges the statements given to agents as a violation of his constitutional right to counsel.

At the hearing, the Government called four witnesses: Border Patrol Agents Cary Kuykendall and Caleb Sullivan, and HSI Special Agents Anthony Diez and Orlando Vara. Agent Kuykendall was the primary agent at the tactical checkpoint on the date of Defendant’s arrest. Agent Sullivan was the secondary agent at the tactical checkpoint and was the agent who pursued and ultimately stopped the Lexus after the discovery of the allegedly illegal occupants in the Chevrolet truck. Special Agent Diez was the interrogating agent at the Border Patrol station after Defendant was arrested and brought to the station for questioning. Special Agent Vara assisted in the interview of Defendant.

Defendant testified to the events that occurred during his interrogation with Agents Diez and Vara.

I. The Border Patrol Agents Had Reasonable Suspicion to Conduct the Stop

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, [553]*553against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const, amend. IV. Traffic stops — -including traffic stops for immigration inspections — are considered seizures within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 882-84, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975). “To temporarily detain a vehicle for investigatory purposes, a Border Patrol Agent on roving patrol4 must be aware of ‘specific articulable facts’ together with [a] rational inference from those facts, that warrant a reasonable suspicion that the vehicle is involved in illegal activities, such as transporting undocumented immigrants.” United States v. Garza, 727 F.3d 436, 440 (5th Cir.2013) (quoting United States v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
997 F. Supp. 2d 549, 2014 WL 468737, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-salazar-txwd-2014.