United States v. Enrique Nava

Today we once again hold that an individual is not arrested but merely detained when, at the border, he is asked to exit his vehicle, briefly handcuffed while escorted to the security office, uncuffed, patted down, and required to wait while his vehicle is searched.

I. Facts

On December 1, 2002, at around 8:50 p.m., defendant Enrique Nava drove to the San Ysidro, California port of entry into the United States. Inspectors Santiago and Sloat were patrolling cars in “prepri-mary” — an area where cars'are lined up to approach a primary inspection booth— when their narcotics detector dog alerted on the gas tank of Nava’s pickup truck. Nava was asked to shut off his engine. He stated he had nothing to declare, and indicated that he was the owner of the vehicle. He was asked where he had been and, where he was going, and he responded. Nava was asked for his identification and vehicle registration, and, as he took his identification out of his wallet, Santiago noticed Nava’s hands were shaking. Santiago also noticed that after Nava had given over his license, “he was tossing his wallet side to side, you know, like, playing with it,” which was “another sign of nervousness” to Santiago.…