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Merely being near an illegal alien is not reasonable suspicion of alien smuggling

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant was illegally stopped for suspicion of alien smuggling for merely being near an illegal alien. United States v. Varela-Delgado, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32727 (W.D. Tex. April 14, 2008): In fact, the only evidence of an immigration violation with any connection to Hernandez relates to Varela's unlawful presence in the United States. However, this fact alone does not justify stopping and extensively detaining Hernandez because Varela had already been detained, and there was no evidence at the time that Hernandez knew of Varela's illegal status. While courts are "reluctant to second guess the actions of law enforcement," it is telling that neither Gomez nor Cardoza attempted to confirm Hernandez's contention that the children were hers or that they were all United States citizens...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 24, 2008 (boomark / email).