United States v. Juan Manuel Sanchez-Vargas

Appellant Juan Manuel Sanchez-Vargas appeals his convictions for bringing an alien into the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1824 (a)(1)(A) and transporting an alien within the United States in violation of § 1324(a)(1)(B) of the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Sanchez-Vargas contends that the border patrol agent who apprehended him lacked adequate cause to stop his vehicle, and that the district court erred in sentencing him to consecutive prison terms for the two offenses. While the district court properly determined that the requisite level of suspicion attended the stop of Sanchez-Vargas’ vehicle, we conclude that the court’s decision to sentence Sanchez-Vargas for both bringing in and transporting aliens was improper.

I.

On July 28, 1987, Sanchez-Vargas was stopped by Border Patrol Agent Scott while driving his light-colored sedan near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry at the Mexico-California border. At the pre-trial suppression hearing, Agent Scott testified that he had received radio transmissions from two other Border Patrol Agents minutes before stopping Sanchez-Vargas’ vehicle. The first transmission, from Agent Jum-beck, concerned Jumbeck’s recent observation…