United States v. Garcia-Beltran ( 2006 )


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  •                     FOR PUBLICATION
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,                       No. 05-30434
    Plaintiff-Appellee,
    v.                                 D.C. No.
    CR-01-00336-BR
    FILIMON GARCIA-BELTRAN,
    OPINION
    Defendant-Appellant.
    
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the District of Oregon
    Anna J. Brown, District Judge, Presiding
    Submitted November 18, 2005*
    Portland, Oregon
    Filed April 6, 2006
    Before: Susan P. Graber and Johnnie B. Rawlinson,
    Circuit Judges, and S. James Otero,** District Judge.
    Opinion by Judge Otero
    *This panel unanimously finds this case suitable for decision without
    oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
    **The Honorable S. James Otero, United States District Judge for the
    Central District of California, sitting by designation.
    3835
    3838           UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN
    COUNSEL
    Stephen R. Sady, Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender, and
    Nancy S. Bergeson, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Port-
    land, Oregon, for the defendant-appellant.
    Kent S. Robinson, Assistant United States Attorney, Portland,
    Oregon, for the plaintiff-appellee.
    OPINION
    OTERO, District Judge:
    Defendant-appellant Filimon Garcia-Beltran appeals the
    district court’s grant of the government’s motion to require
    Garcia-Beltran to provide a pretrial fingerprint exemplar. The
    district court granted this motion after having first suppressed
    defendant’s fingerprint exemplars taken while defendant was
    in custody after an arrest lacking probable cause. The decision
    to suppress defendant’s fingerprints followed from the district
    court’s finding that the fingerprints had been taken for both
    investigative and identification purposes. The district court’s
    finding came at the direction of this court to hold an evidenti-
    ary hearing to determine the government’s purpose in taking
    the fingerprints.
    UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN             3839
    Garcia-Beltran contends that the law of the case doctrine
    and the rule of mandate preclude the district court from grant-
    ing the motion to compel a new set of fingerprint exemplars.
    In addition, Garcia-Beltran asserts that, without an indepen-
    dent basis for fingerprinting, the evidence is subject to the
    exclusionary rule and, hence, cannot be used by the govern-
    ment at trial. We reject both arguments, and we affirm the dis-
    trict court’s ruling on the government’s motion to require
    Garcia-Beltran to provide a pretrial fingerprint exemplar.
    I
    The government charged defendant-appellant Filimon
    Garcia-Beltran with violating 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b)(2),
    illegal re-entry after deportation, and violation of 8 U.S.C.
    § 1325(a), illegal reentry without inspection. Following his
    arraignment and plea of “Not Guilty,” Garcia-Beltran filed a
    Motion to Suppress certain evidence; he particularly objected
    to the use of fingerprint exemplars that had been taken of him
    following his arrest. The district court denied the motion.
    Thereafter, Garcia-Beltran entered a conditional guilty plea
    for violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), thereby preserving his
    right to appeal.
    Garcia-Beltran appealed the district court’s denial of his
    Motion to Suppress. This court held that an evidentiary hear-
    ing was needed to determine if the fingerprints at issue in
    Garcia Beltran’s Motion to Suppress had been taken for
    investigative purposes or for identification purposes. We
    determined that fingerprints taken solely for investigative pur-
    poses must be suppressed, while those taken for identification
    purposes would not be suppressed. United States v. Garcia-
    Beltran, 
    389 F.3d 864
    , 865 (9th Cir. 2004). As a result of this
    court’s analysis, the district court’s judgment was vacated and
    the matter remanded for an evidentiary hearing.
    As instructed by this court, the district court held an evi-
    dentiary hearing to determine the purposes for which Garcia-
    3840              UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN
    Beltran was fingerprinted after his arrest. We rely on the fac-
    tual findings of the district court pursuant to this court’s
    remand order for our factual narrative, reviewing for clear
    error. United States v. Guzman-Bruno, 
    27 F.3d 420
    , 421 (9th
    Cir. 1994).
    The exact circumstances prior to the arrest that occurred on
    August 14, 2001, are largely unimportant, as the government
    conceded that Garcia-Beltran was arrested without probable
    cause. However, there are a few noteworthy background facts
    pertaining to the circumstances immediately following the
    arrest. After his arrest, Garcia-Beltran produced a Resident
    Alien Card and a Mexican voting card in the name of “Jose
    Luis Garcia-Hernandez.” The arresting officer was suspicious
    of these documents and determined that they were forgeries.
    The officer issued defendant-appellant a “Uniform Criminal
    Citation” accusing him of “Forgery 2.” After issuing this cita-
    tion, the officer left Garcia-Beltran at the Multnomah County
    Detention Center (MCDC)1 for a “mug/print.” Garcia-
    Beltran’s true identity was yet unknown at this time.
    The district court found that once Garcia-Beltran was at
    MCDC, another Portland police officer took the first of three
    sets of Garcia-Beltran’s fingerprints as part of the “mug/print”
    process. A records search that was conducted based on these
    fingerprints showed that defendant-appellant had previously
    been identified by the Portland Police Bureau as “Garcia, Fili-
    mon Beltran, DOB 112264” and by immigration authorities as
    “Garcia Beltran, Taurino.”
    Once Garcia-Beltran was so identified and while he was
    still at MCDC, the Portland Police Bureau contacted federal
    immigration officials2 with a “Special Report.” The Special
    1
    The Multnomah County Detention Center is the county booking facil-
    ity and jail located in Portland, Oregon.
    2
    At the time of Garcia-Beltran’s arrest, the Immigration and Naturaliza-
    tion Service (INS) was the federal agency in charge of handling
    immigration-related offenses. The INS is now known as Immigration and
    Customs Enforcement (ICE).
    UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN              3841
    Report stated that defendant-appellant had been identified by
    fingerprint comparison as being the persons named above and
    was being detained. The report also contained Garcia-
    Beltran’s “A-File” number, tying him to his A-File. In
    response to the Special Report, immigration officials
    requested that a detainer be placed on Garcia-Beltran. Immi-
    gration officials also were alerted to Garcia-Beltran’s previ-
    ous charges of illegal entry and his deportation earlier that
    year.
    The following day, Garcia-Beltran was fingerprinted again,
    this time by immigration authorities. This second set of fin-
    gerprints was compared to the fingerprint found on the War-
    rant of Deportation located in Garcia-Beltran’s A-File.
    Because this second set of fingerprints was later deemed inad-
    equate for identification purposes, Garcia-Beltran was finger-
    printed yet again, for the third and final time. This set of
    fingerprints was compared against the fingerprint on the War-
    rant of Deportation, and it was found that the prints matched.
    Based on these findings of fact and concessions made by
    the government, the district court focused on Garcia-Beltran’s
    third set of fingerprints for the purposes of the remand order.
    The district court found that the third set of fingerprints had
    been taken in part for investigative purposes and consequently
    granted the Motion to Suppress as to the Third Set of Finger-
    prints. Garcia-Beltran then withdrew his previous conditional
    guilty plea. Shortly thereafter, the government submitted a
    Motion for Order Requiring Defendant to Provide Fingerprint
    Exemplar for use at trial, which the district court granted. Fol-
    lowing this ruling, Garcia-Beltran once again entered a condi-
    tional guilty plea.
    Garcia-Beltran timely appealed to this court the district
    court’s granting of the government’s motion to compel
    Garcia-Beltran’s submission of a new set of fingerprint exem-
    plars.
    3842            UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN
    II
    On appeal, Garcia-Beltran contends that the law of the case
    doctrine and the rule of mandate preclude the district court
    from ordering the new set of fingerprints, unless the govern-
    ment proves an independent source.
    A
    [1] According to the law of the case doctrine, on remand a
    lower court is bound to follow the appellate court’s decision
    as to issues “decided explicitly or by necessary implication.”
    Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. EEOC, 
    691 F.2d 438
    , 441 (9th Cir.
    1982). However, the lower court is so bound only as to those
    issues addressed by the appellate court. See United States v.
    Cote, 
    51 F.3d 178
    , 181 (9th Cir. 1995) (quoting Luckey v.
    Miller, 
    929 F.2d 618
    , 621 (11th Cir. 1991)). Hence, in apply-
    ing the law of the case doctrine, the district court in the instant
    matter was required to follow this court’s decisions, but only
    as to issues actually addressed and explicitly or implicitly
    decided upon in the court’s previous disposition, Garcia-
    Beltran, 
    389 F.3d 864
    .
    [2] The lower court must also adhere to the rule of man-
    date. “The rule of mandate is similar to, but broader than, the
    law of the case doctrine.” 
    Cote, 51 F.3d at 181
    (citing Her-
    rington v. County of Sonoma, 
    12 F.3d 901
    , 904 (9th Cir.
    1993)). The rule of mandate requires a lower court to act on
    the mandate of an appellate court, without variance or exami-
    nation, only execution. In re Sanford Fork & Tool Co., 
    160 U.S. 247
    , 255 (1895); accord Stamper v. Baskerville, 
    724 F.2d 1106
    , 1107 (4th Cir. 1984). Thus, in the instant matter,
    the district court cannot grant the government’s motion if so
    doing would exceed the boundaries as delineated by this
    court’s previous mandate.
    B
    Garcia-Beltran’s main contention in applying the law of the
    case doctrine and the rule of mandate is that Garcia-Beltran
    UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN                3843
    requires the suppression of all fingerprints (1) if the initial fin-
    gerprinting of defendant-appellant was done for investigatory
    purposes and (2) if the government has not proved an inde-
    pendent source. In support of this assertion, Garcia-Beltran
    finds fault with the district court’s reliance on United States
    v. Parga-Rosas, 
    238 F.3d 1209
    (9th Cir. 2001), vis-à-vis this
    court’s reference to the same case in its remand order. How-
    ever, Garcia-Beltran’s attempts to broaden the scope of the
    court’s remand order by distinguishing Parga-Rosas from the
    instant matter are misguided.
    In Parga-Rosas, fingerprints of an illegal alien taken imme-
    diately after an illegal arrest were suppressed while this court
    affirmed the district court’s decision not to suppress finger-
    print exemplars taken five months after the arrest. The facts
    in Parga-Rosas differed from those in the instant matter in
    that there the defendant produced a photocopy of a “green
    card” issued in his name when asked for identification by a
    law enforcement 
    official. 238 F.3d at 1211
    . Using the number
    on the green card, law enforcement was able to locate the
    immigration files connecting the defendant to a prior deporta-
    tion. 
    Id. In contrast,
    in the instant matter Garcia-Beltran gave
    law enforcement officials a false name and false identifica-
    tion. Hence, Garcia-Beltran was correctly identified only after
    his fingerprints, taken after a concededly illegal arrest, were
    matched in the relevant database. Garcia-Beltran hopes to use
    this factual difference to distinguish Parga-Rosas, thereby
    escaping from the same fate of having this court uphold the
    district court’s decision not to suppress a later set of finger-
    print exemplars.
    Garcia-Beltran’s argument is unpersuasive because this
    court’s discussion of Parga-Rosas in its earlier disposition of
    the instant matter is fully consistent with the district court’s
    subsequent decision to grant the government’s motion to com-
    pel a new set of fingerprints from Garcia-Beltran. Garcia-
    Beltran was limited to the question of suppression of an initial
    set of fingerprints, while Parga-Rosas and the instant matter
    3844           UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN
    deal with the question of suppression of a later set of finger-
    prints.
    [3] This court clarified the boundaries of its decision in
    Garcia-Beltran in its recent opinion, United States v. Ortiz-
    Hernandez, 
    427 F.3d 567
    (9th Cir. 2005) (per curiam). Ortiz-
    Hernandez is similar to the matter at hand but differs in that
    there the district court denied the government’s motion to
    compel a new set of fingerprint exemplars after having first
    suppressed fingerprints taken after an illegal arrest. In that
    case, this court affirmed the initial suppression and reversed
    as to the denial of the motion to compel a new set of finger-
    prints. 
    Id. at 570.
    Indeed, the court in Ortiz-Hernandez explicitly stated:
    [R]eliance on Garcia-Beltran is inapposite here. The
    Garcia-Beltran court considered only whether an
    initial set of fingerprints must be suppressed if
    obtained with an investigatory 
    purpose. 389 F.3d at 867-68
    . There is no discussion of whether a second
    set of fingerprints could later be compelled to iden-
    tify a defendant once he was under indictment.
    
    Id. at 577
    n.4. After thus distinguishing Ortiz-Hernandez from
    Garcia-Beltran, the court proceeded to apply Parga-Rosas:
    “Only the Parga-Rosas court has addressed that issue [of later
    compelling a second set of fingerprints to identify a defendant
    once he has been indicted], and we follow that approach
    here.” 
    Id. Hence, Garcia-Beltran’s
    argument that the law of
    the case doctrine and the mandate rule preclude the district
    court’s ruling granting the government’s motion to compel a
    new set of fingerprint exemplars necessarily fails. This court
    has already explicitly stated that the Garcia-Beltran remand
    order was limited to the question of suppression of an initial
    set of fingerprints; the remand order simply did not consider
    whether a new set of fingerprints could later be compelled to
    identify the defendant after indictment.
    UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN            3845
    III
    Garcia-Beltran continues to argue that, because he was
    arrested illegally, and his true identity discovered only as a
    result of investigatory fingerprinting, all evidence derived
    from that illegal arrest is thus tainted under Wong Sun v.
    United States, 
    371 U.S. 471
    (1963). Accordingly, Garcia-
    Beltran maintains that the government must produce an inde-
    pendent basis for fingerprinting before the government can
    make use of any of the evidence.
    [4] We look for guidance in the development of evidentiary
    case law as it pertains to the exclusionary rule by the U.S.
    Supreme Court and this circuit. The Supreme Court has dis-
    cussed fingerprint evidence beginning with its fundamental
    holding in Davis v. Mississippi, 
    394 U.S. 721
    (1969). In
    Davis, the defendant was one of “at least 24 Negro youths”
    who were rounded up and fingerprinted in the police’s
    attempt to discover the perpetrator of a rape. 
    Id. at 722.
    The
    Court there ruled that despite the inherent trustworthiness of
    fingerprint evidence, the defendant’s fingerprints, which
    matched with fingerprints found at the scene of the crime,
    were subject to the exclusionary rule as evidence resulting
    from an arrest without probable cause. 
    Id. at 723-24.
    Years
    later, the Court affirmed the Davis holding in Hayes v. Flor-
    ida, 
    470 U.S. 811
    , 813 (1985) (reversing the state district
    court of appeal’s affirmance of use of fingerprint evidence
    taken during police detention without probable cause). Hence,
    it is primarily based on Davis and Hayes that fingerprints
    taken for an investigatory purpose are suppressed. See
    
    Garcia-Beltran, 389 U.S. at 867
    ; accord 
    Ortiz-Hernandez, 427 F.3d at 576
    .
    [5] The Court has also focused more directly on the admis-
    sibility of evidence establishing identity. In INS v. Lopez-
    Mendoza, 
    468 U.S. 1032
    , 1035 (1984), the Supreme Court
    encountered the situation where Lopez-Mendoza, an illegal
    alien, objected to his deportation hearing solely on the ground
    3846              UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN
    that he had been arrested illegally, i.e., by INS agents lacking
    a “warrant to search the premises [where Lopez-Mendoza was
    apprehended] or to arrest any of its occupants.” The Court
    rejected Lopez-Mendoza’s argument, stating: “The ‘body’ or
    identity of a defendant or respondent in a criminal or civil
    proceeding is never itself suppressible as fruit of an unlawful
    arrest, even if it is conceded that an unlawful arrest, search,
    or interrogation occurred.” 
    Id. at 1039.
    In essence, the Court
    declined to hold that the consequences of an illegal arrest,
    search, or interrogation is to let the defendant go free because
    of the unlawfulness of the arrest, search, or interrogation.
    Instead, Lopez-Mendoza established that a defendant, includ-
    ing his identity, is properly before a court in a criminal or
    civil proceeding despite the initial illegal police action.
    The Ninth Circuit has applied the Supreme Court’s holding
    in Lopez-Mendoza to numerous situations, both similar and
    dissimilar in underlying facts to those found here.3 Notably,
    in United States v. Guzman-Bruno, 
    27 F.3d 420
    (9th Cir.
    3
    In United States v. Ramirez-Garcia, 
    269 F.3d 945
    (9th Cir. 2001), after
    applying for a lease and credit check, the defendant was similarly charged
    with a violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 and sought to suppress certain evi-
    dence. This court, citing Lopez-Mendoza, noted there that “the information
    he seeks to suppress, his identity and the fact of his presence within the
    United States, cannot be suppressed.” 
    Id. at 947.
       In United States v. Diaz-Juarez, 
    299 F.3d 1138
    , 1140 (9th Cir. 2002),
    a narcotics-distribution conspiracy case, despite the lack of unanimity in
    the underlying disposition of the case, there was no dissent concerning the
    suppression of identity evidence. “From our caselaw [sic], it is clear that
    one’s identity cannot be suppressed.” 
    Id. at 1148
    n.11 (Ferguson, J., dis-
    senting).
    In United States v. del Toro Gudino, 
    376 F.3d 997
    , 998 (9th Cir. 2004),
    cert. denied, 
    125 S. Ct. 1356
    (2005), this court affirmed the district court’s
    denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress the false statement of his
    identity and the subsequent discovery of his true identity through a finger-
    print and photograph match. In addressing the defendant’s contention that
    the evidence should have been suppressed as a result of an unconstitu-
    tional stop, the court noted: “Our cases treat identity different from other
    kinds of evidence.” 
    Id. at 1000.
                       UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN                        3847
    1994), the defendant was arrested without probable cause and
    later charged with violating 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Guzman-Bruno
    had admitted his name and birthdate to law enforcement offi-
    cials and accordingly was connected to his prior criminal his-
    tory and deportations. 
    Id. at 421.
    Guzman-Bruno objected that
    the district court should have suppressed evidence of his iden-
    tity and his prior record. 
    Id. This court
    found the evidence
    admissible, applying the holding in Lopez-Mendoza and prior
    Ninth Circuit case law.4 
    Id. at 422.
    Quoting from an earlier
    Ninth Circuit opinion, this court noted that “ ‘there is no sanc-
    tion to be applied when an illegal arrest only leads to discov-
    ery of the man’s identity.’ ” 
    Id. at 421
    (alteration omitted)
    (quoting Hoonsilapa v. INS, 
    575 F.2d 735
    , 738, modified, 
    586 F.2d 755
    (9th Cir. 1978)).
    [6] The Ninth Circuit has consistently held that evidence
    concerning the identity of a defendant, obtained after an ille-
    gal police action, is not suppressible as “fruit of the poisonous
    tree.” Garcia-Beltran’s efforts to characterize his identity evi-
    dence as fruit of the poisonous tree in order to require the
    government to provide an independent basis to purge the
    allegedly tainted evidence are but fruitless. This court’s
    lengthy history of holding that identity evidence cannot be
    suppressed extends to the instant matter and, hence, to grant-
    ing of the government’s motion to compel a new set of finger-
    print exemplars from Garcia-Beltran.
    Garcia-Beltran, in an effort to sway the court’s decision,
    cites a recent district court case, United States v. Bowley, No.
    4
    Even prior to Lopez-Mendoza, this court has held that evidence con-
    cerning the identity of a defendant and obtained as a result of an illegal
    arrest does not fall within the confines of the exclusionary rule. See Hoon-
    silapa v. INS, 
    575 F.2d 735
    , 738 (9th Cir. 1978) (allowing use of contents
    of alien’s INS files to establish identity as alien subject to deportation after
    illegal arrest and search of home); accord United States v. Orozco-Rico,
    
    589 F.2d 433
    , 435 (9th Cir. 1978) (finding no right to suppression of ille-
    gal alien’s governmental files, including record of prior deportations, fol-
    lowing allegedly illegal arrest).
    3848            UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN
    CRIM. 2004/0169, 
    46 V.I. 646
    , 
    2005 WL 1398632
    (D.V.I.
    June 8, 2005). In Bowley, the District Court of the Virgin
    Islands held that the defendant’s identity as an illegal alien,
    discovered through fingerprint comparison, was fruit of the
    poisonous tree as the result of an illegal arrest. Notable about
    the Bowley decision is that the district court applied case law
    from circuits beyond its own (Third Circuit) to arrive at this
    holding. Considering that the Bowley court cited Ninth Circuit
    authority in arriving at a holding that seems contrary to what
    the Ninth Circuit itself would hold, an examination of the cir-
    cuit law cited in Bowley seems appropriate.
    In arriving at its decision in Bowley, the district court relied
    principally on United States v. Guevara-Martinez, 
    262 F.3d 751
    (8th Cir. 2001). In Guevara-Martinez, the defendant was
    arrested after an illegal stop by police. 
    Id. at 752.
    Guevara-
    Martinez’s true identity was established only after he was fin-
    gerprinted, thereby linking him to his INS file. 
    Id. The court
    in Guevara-Martinez declined to apply Lopez-Mendoza, rea-
    soning that the Supreme Court’s reference to the suppression
    of identity in Lopez-Mendoza was “tied only to a jurisdic-
    tional issue, not to an evidentiary issue.” 
    Id. at 753.
    In other
    words, the Eighth Circuit limited Lopez-Mendoza’s holding to
    the question of whether or not a court has jurisdiction over a
    defendant’s body after an illegal arrest, and not whether or not
    a court must suppress evidence as to a defendant’s true iden-
    tity obtained after an illegal arrest. The Eighth Circuit ulti-
    mately affirmed the district court’s granting of the motion,
    applying Davis v. Mississippi. The court explained its hold-
    ing:
    In the absence of evidence that Guevara-Martinez’s
    fingerprinting resulted from routine booking proce-
    dures, rather than for the purpose of pursuing INS-
    related proceedings against him, we conclude that
    the district court properly suppressed the evidence.
    
    Id. UNITED STATES
    v. GARCIA-BELTRAN               3849
    This court in Garcia-Beltran cited with approval the Eighth
    Circuit’s analysis in 
    Guevara-Martinez. 389 F.3d at 868
    .
    Indeed, the issue in Guevara-Martinez was parallel to that in
    Garcia-Beltran: the suppression of initial fingerprints being
    dependent upon the purpose for which the fingerprints are
    taken following an illegal arrest. Ultimately, there is no con-
    flict between the holdings in Guevara-Martinez and Garcia-
    Beltran.
    However, as pertains to the issues presented in the instant
    matter, we recognize that the decisions of the Eighth Circuit
    might yield a different outcome than the case law of this cir-
    cuit. The Eighth Circuit’s limitation of Lopez-Mendoza would
    require that court to suppress post-indictment fingerprints as
    not having resulted from “routine booking procedures.” The
    Eighth Circuit would thereby require an independent basis to
    purge the tainted fingerprints, much as Garcia-Beltran argues.
    Regardless of this court’s speculation as to how the Eighth
    Circuit might rule on the instant motion, it is clear that the
    application of Guevara-Martinez to the matter at hand is lim-
    ited, as Guevara-Martinez dealt with the suppression of initial
    fingerprints taken after an illegal arrest, not a later set of fin-
    gerprints taken for identification purposes.
    Seemingly, the holding of the Eighth Circuit is what the
    court in Bowley follows. As further support for its holding
    that the fingerprint evidence is fruit of the poisonous tree, the
    Bowley court also cites United States v. Olivares-Rangel, 
    324 F. Supp. 2d 1218
    (D.N.M. 2004). While the Tenth Circuit has
    yet to affirmatively rule on the issue, the district court in
    Olivares-Rangel has agreed with the Eighth Circuit. 
    Id. at 1224.
    In a case involving the suppression of identification and
    fingerprint evidence, the district court found the reasoning of
    the Eighth Circuit persuasive and consequently suppressed the
    evidence flowing from an illegal police stop. 
    Id. Yet the
    Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of Lopez-Mendoza
    does not stand alone among the circuits. In a case concerning
    3850           UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN
    an illegal alien stopped unlawfully by Border Patrol, the Fifth
    Circuit, in United States v. Roque-Villanueva, 
    175 F.3d 345
    ,
    346 (5th Cir. 1999), affirmed the district court’s denial of the
    defendant’s motion to suppress. The Fifth Circuit court held:
    “Even if the Defendant was illegally stopped, neither his iden-
    tity nor his INS file [is] suppressible.” 
    Id. Despite the
    apparent difference in opinion among the cir-
    cuits as to the scope of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lopez-
    Mendoza, the law of this circuit is clear. In Ortiz-Hernandez
    the court wrestled with the seeming conflict in end result in
    the situation where an initial set of fingerprints is suppressed
    but a new set of fingerprints is compelled for identification
    purposes at trial soon thereafter. The court acknowledged this
    seeming conflict, ultimately determining:
    While the original set of Ortiz-Hernandez’s fin-
    gerprints should be suppressed as wrongfully
    obtained, the government is now aware of Ortiz-
    Hernandez’s identity; it may rely on his identity, as
    well as his criminal and immigration record, in
    bringing § 1326 criminal charges against him. . . .
    The government now may bring Ortiz-Hernandez
    to trial on the illegal reentry indictment and compel
    him to submit to another fingerprinting based on that
    arrest and arraignment and use the evidence for pur-
    poses of identification at trial.
    
    Ortiz-Hernandez, 427 F.3d at 577
    . The court found this result
    fully consistent with prior Ninth Circuit case law: “This result
    is consistent with and compelled by United States v. Parga-
    Rosas, 
    238 F.3d 1209
    (9th Cir. 2001).” 
    Id. Further, the
    court
    stated:
    As was the case in Parga-Rosas, the government
    already knows Ortiz-Hernandez’s identity. The new
    set of fingerprints the government now requests,
    UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN                 3851
    after the federal grand jury indictment for a different
    offense has been returned, are not sought out of “an
    investigative purpose” but “serve only to further
    establish his identity.” See 
    Garcia-Beltran, 389 F.3d at 867
    (considering 
    Parga-Rosas, 238 F.3d at 1215
    ).
    
    Id. [7] As
    in Ortiz-Hernandez, the initial set of fingerprints
    obtained by the police following Garcia-Beltran’s unlawful
    arrest was rightfully suppressed. However, also as in Ortiz-
    Hernandez, the government “is now aware of [Garcia-
    Beltran]’s identity.” 
    Id. Therefore, the
    government may make
    use of that information in bringing Garcia-Beltran to face
    charges for illegal reentry and to require the defendant to sub-
    mit new fingerprint exemplars to establish his identity at trial.
    The court in Ortiz-Hernandez also considered the effect of
    its holding on the earlier suppression of the initial set of fin-
    gerprints. The court acknowledged, “Admittedly, our holding
    here limits the theoretical effect of suppressing the initial set
    of wrongfully obtained fingerprint exemplars, but this result
    is compelled by the nature of the evidence Ortiz-Hernandez
    is seeking to suppress—who he is.” 
    Id. at 578.
    Under Lopez-
    Mendoza and Ortiz-Hernandez, we must affirm.
    AFFIRMED.
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 05-30434

Filed Date: 4/5/2006

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 10/13/2015

Authorities (22)

Horace Luckey III v. Zell Miller, Governor , 929 F.2d 618 ( 1991 )

Charles Sylvester Stamper v. Alton Baskerville, ... , 724 F.2d 1106 ( 1984 )

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United States v. Manuel Ramirez-Garcia , 269 F.3d 945 ( 2001 )

United States v. Rene Del Toro Gudino, AKA Rene Del Toro-... , 376 F.3d 997 ( 2004 )

United States v. Filimon Garcia-Beltran , 389 F.3d 864 ( 2004 )

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United States v. Olivares-Rangel , 324 F. Supp. 2d 1218 ( 2004 )

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