Lopez-Rodriguez

BACKGROUND

In October 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Ser- vice (“INS”)1 received a tip that a female by the name of Fabi- ola was fraudulently using a birth certificate belonging to Sugeyra Torres-Carillo, a citizen of the United States, to obtain employment. The tip also indicated that the suspect lived at a specified address in Fresno, California. Gastelum and Lopez, niece and aunt, resided at that address. Gastelum was seventeen years old at the time.

Three INS agents decided to act on the tip and visit the resi- dence to investigate the matter. They did not obtain an arrest or search warrant prior to conducting their visit.2 The circum- 1 As of March 2003, INS became United States Citizenship and Immi- gration Services, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. 2 The record does contain a Warrant for Arrest of Alien for Lopez. This document, however, was served at “1711 hrs,” 5:11 PM, on October 30, 10214 LOPEZ-RODRIGUEZ v. MUKASEY stances surrounding the INS agents’ entry into the residence were disputed, as we explain below. Ultimately, the IJ found that the agents entered without consent. Once inside, the three INS agents questioned…