Liera

I. FACTS

On February 15, 2007, at about 4:15 a.m., Liera entered the United States from Mexico at the Calexico West Port of Entry. Liera was driving a 1989 Chevrolet pickup truck with Mexican license plates. During a border search of the truck, Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) officers found two unrelated aliens, Le Chen and Wu Chen, under the truck’s hood lying in separate built-in compartments located on each side of the engine.2 CBP officers also found a cell phone. It is unclear whether the cell phone was found in the truck or whether the cell phone was found in one of Liera’s pockets during a pat-down search.

Following Liera’s arrest, CBP Officer Figueroa interro- gated Liera on two separate occasions.3 At 9:18 a.m., about 1 Liera also argues that: (1) the district court improperly admitted into evidence Le Chen’s hearsay testimony regarding what his mother told him it would cost to have a person smuggled into the United States; (2) the dis- trict court should have suppressed all of Liera’s statements to CBP Officer Figueroa because of non-compliance with Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966); and (3) the district court’s jury instructions denied Liera his right to…