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Immigration Law

BIA (unpub.) on Egregious 4th Amendment Violation: CBP 'Smelled' Undocumented Aliens in Car

Enrique Soto-Garcia, A087 534 842 (BIA May 7, 2013) - "In this unpublished decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) upheld an immigration judge's finding that Border Patrol agents committed an egregious Fourth Amendment violation when they pulled over the car in which the respondent was travelling because they could "smell undocumented aliens."  The BIA further agreed that the government could not establish the respondent's alienage by relying on copies of the children's birth certificates submitted during a bond hearing; records from the Mexican National Population Registry submitted during the suppression hearing; or evidence from the USCIS Central Index System submitted after the suppression hearing.  The BIA remanded the case, however, for clarification of whether the respondent's brother's testimony during the suppression hearing provided independent evidence of the respondent's alienage.  The decision was written by Member Roger Pauley."  [Hats way off to John Dalton Shaw!  Link courtesy of the Immigrant & Refugee Appellate Center.]