Duarte-Hernandez
United States v. Duarte-Hernandez
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Roberto Duarte-Hernandez (“DuarteHernandez”) appeals his conviction for transportation of illegal aliens. He contends that Border Patrol Agents (the “Agents”) decided on the basis of his ethnicity to stop a van in which he was trans *503 porting nine illegal aliens and seize him. Duarte-Hernandez argues that this seizure violated his Fifth Amendment right to equal protection of the laws and his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. DuarteHernandez argues that reasonable suspicion did not justify his seizure and that probable cause did not support the Agents’ deployment of a tire-deflating tack strip to stop his vehicle.
Because Duarte-Hernandez waived his equal protection argument by not presenting it to the District Court and because reasonable suspicion justified the Agents’ seizure of Duarte-Hernandez, we affirm.
BACKGROUND
One afternoon in January 2000, two United States Border Patrol Agents (Agents “Medhurst” and “Olvera”) stood at the intersection of Highways 86 and S-22 in Imperial County, California, and chatted with a local resident. This intersection lies about 40 to 50 miles north of the U.S.Mexico border. As the…