Judge: Border Patrol caught human traffickers too far from Mexican border
By Carol Christian | November 17, 2014 | Updated: November 17, 2014 4:37pm
Two border agents who stopped a Chevrolet Suburban they thought looked suspiciously heavy were well intentioned but overly zealous, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo in Corpus Christi on Thursday granted a defendant's motion to suppress evidence, stating that the agents in question lacked "reasonable suspicion to believe that criminal activity was afoot."
For one thing, the judge's order stated, the Suburban was about 150 miles north of the border. Citing an earlier case, the judge said that a vehicle more than 50 miles from the border is usually considered too far away for anyone to infer that it started its journey there.
In this case, United States v. Severo Canales-Rosales filed Aug. 11, Border Patrol agents Donald Kenefick and John Corona were on duty about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 10, patroling Texas 77 just south of Robstown. They noticed a Suburban that appeared weighted down in the rear so they began to follow it.
Unable to see inside the vehicle, the agents requested a registration check, which showed it was registered in Brownsville, and a "crossing check," indicating that it had passed through the Sarita checkpoint, about 50 miles to the south, more than 24 hours before, according to court documents.
The agents thought the 24-hour delay could mean that the vehicle occupants got out before the checkpoint, walked around it and met up with the vehicle beyond the checkpoint -- a technique common among undocumented immigrants, according to the judge's order.
When the agents stopped the Suburban, they found seven Mexican citizens inside, including one 14-year-old juvenile. ll in the United States illegally, records state.
Nonetheless, the judge said it was just as likely that the vehicle's occupants had stopped in nearby Kingsville for a night as that they had walked around the Sarita checkpoint.
Therefore, the court found that the stop leading to the discovery of undocumented immigrants in the vehicle was an unreasonable seizure under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment. The judge granted the defendant's motion and suppressed any evidence resulting from the stop.
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...es-5898923.php
