United States v. Filiberto Guzman-Bruno

Opinion by Chief Judge WALLACE.

Guzman-Bruno entered a conditional guilty plea to being a deported alien found in the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 and was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment followed by a 5 year term of supervised release. Guzman-Bruno appeals from his sentence as well as from the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress his identity as the fruit of an illegal arrest. The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231 . We have jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742 . We affirm in part and vacate and remand in part.

I

On November 20, 1992, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents were stationed in a van in Los Angeles preparing to execute a warrant for specific criminal suspects. The agents observed Guzman-Bruno, who was not named in the warrant, through binoculars. Suspicious because of his attire and the location where he was standing, the agents approached him, patted him down, and then asked him questions, including his name and where he was born. Based on his responses, the agents suspected he was in the country illegally, and took him into administrative…