Sanchez v. Sessions, No. 14-71768 (9th Cir. 2018)
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The Ninth Circuit granted a petition for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's denial of petitioner's motion to suppress evidence. In this case, petitioner was on a fishing trip with friends when his boat lost power. When Coast Guard officers arrived to tow the boat, they detained petitioner and subsequently placed him in removal proceedings.
The panel held that petitioner made a prima facie showing that the Coast Guard officers who detained him violated 8 C.F.R. 287.8(b)(2), which requires that an immigration officer have reasonable suspicion, based on specific articulable facts that a person is, or is attempting to be, engaged in an offense against the United States, or is an alien illegally in the United States, in order for the immigration officer to briefly detain the person for questioning. In this case petitioner was detained solely on the basis of his race and his detention was contrary to the requirements of section 287.8(b)(2). Furthermore, the violation alleged by petitioner was egregious both for its grotesque nature and its patent unlawfulness.
Court Description: Immigration. The panel granted Luis Enrique Sanchez’s petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals that affirmed an immigration judge’s denial of Sanchez’s motion to suppress evidence, holding that a petitioner may be entitled to termination of removal proceedings without prejudice for egregious regulatory violations. During a fishing trip, Sanchez’s boat lost power and Coast Guard officers arrived and towed the boat to Channel Islands Harbor in California. The Coast Guard detained Sanchez, and he was later taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection and placed in removal proceedings, where he unsuccessfully sought to suppress evidence of his alienage and entry into the United States. The panel held that Sanchez had made a prima facie showing that the Coast Guard officers who detained him violated 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(b)(2), which requires that an “immigration officer” have “reasonable suspicion, based on specific articulable facts” that a person is, or is attempting to be, engaged in an offense against the United States, or is an alien illegally in the United States, in order for the immigration officer to briefly detain the person for questioning.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on August 30, 2017.
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