United States v. Carlos Lujan-Castro

Carlos Lujan-Castro moved the district court to dismiss the indictment against him on the grounds that the waiver of his right to have the government maintain the presence of four deportable alien witnesses was ineffective. The district court denied the motion to dismiss, and Lujan-Castro subsequently was convicted of two counts of transporting illegal aliens, in violation of 8 U.S.C. section 1324 (a)(2). He appeals, citing as error the denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment. We affirm.

In the early morning hours of October 4, 1978, agents of the Border Patrol stopped a pickup truck near Douglas, Arizona. The truck, which was being driven by appellant, contained six illegal aliens. Appellant and the others were arrested, and appellant was interviewed at intervals over the next several hours. Approximately four hours after the arrest, the agents requested a waiver by the appellant of his right to have the government retain custody of four of the six deportable aliens. This waiver consisted of two forms, both written in Spanish, appellant’s native tongue. The first advised appellant that he had a right to require the government to retain deportable aliens who might be…