Trooper Can't Be Sued for Questioning Immigrants

[The Straight Story]

Trooper Can't Be Sued for Questioning Immigrants

(CN) - A Rhode Island trooper who pulled over a van of workers had probable cause to ask the driver and passengers about their immigration status and then turn them over to immigration authorities, the 1st Circuit ruled.

In July 2006, trooper Thomas Chabot pulled the van over for failing to signal when changing lanes. Chabot asked the driver and passengers for identification and proof of U.S. citizenship. When they failed to produce any IDs, he escorted them to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Providence, R.I.

The driver and 11 passengers sued, claiming Chabot violated their constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Chabot and the Rhode Island State Police moved to dismiss on the basis of qualified immunity.

The federal appeals court in Boston upheld a lower court's ruling for Chabot, saying he had reason to question the group's immigration status. His inquiries amounted to "mere police questioning," Judge Juan Torruella ruled.

The three-judge panel added that Chabot's two pat-down searches of the van's driver were reasonable due to the safety concerns presented by the large group of unidentified people.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/02/09/24528.htm

[Biker13]

1. Makes Sense...

[treestar]

2. Do passengers have to give IDs?

If you are a passenger in a vehicle and the driver is pulled over for speeding or whatever, what do the passengers have to do with it?

Unless they do something suspicious.

[DURHAM D]

3. Just last week a guy backed into in a parking lot.

The officer who worked the wreck asked the passenger for her ID. The officer talked to the female passenger for a long long time - much longer than she talked with me or the other driver. Later I asked the officer if the passenger owned the vehicle or carried the insurance - officer said no to both. So, I don't know why she talked to the passenger for such a long time unless the passenger was under age and should have been in school.

[treestar]

4. did some research

http://le.alcoda.org/publications/files/Diaz-Castaneda.pdf

Got that cite from a site with police officers posting on it, many of them said if the passenger didn't do anything, they don't ask for their ID.

[vadawg]

6. all depends on the situation, no two traffic stops are the same

i can do 10 in a row and every one will be totally different from each other...

[rug]

5. It wasn't raised.

"Plaintiffs do not contest the validity of the traffic stop, nor do they argue that it was unlawful for Officer Chabot to request identification from all the passengers in the van, a question our Circuit has not conclusively decided. Compare United States v. Chaney, 584 F.3d 20, 27 (1st Cir. 2009)(finding that officer's inquiries into car passenger's identity did not violate passenger's rights) with United States v. Henderson,463 F.3d 27, 31 (1st Cir. 2006) (declining to decide whether an officer could demand a passenger's identification). Instead, Plaintiffs argue that Officer Chabot's inquiry into their immigration status and subsequent call to ICE prolonged the traffic stop, converting it into an unlawful seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment."

The entire opinion is here: http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/

Search for Estrada v. State of Rhode Island, decided February 4, 2010.

[zbdent]

7. I'm envisioning a scenario where an entire schoolbus of kids

could be deported ... because they failed to show ID or proof of citizenship if their driver had an accent and failed to signal ...