United States Second Circuit

The decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) reversing the Immigration Judge's (IJ) prior grant of petitioners' motion to suppress evidence obtained in egregious violation of petitioners' Fourth Amendment rights and terminate their removal proceedings, is vacated and remanded, where: 1) because Lopez-Mendoza confirmed an existing jurisdictional rule, rather than announcing a new evidentiary rule, the BIA erred in concluding that the government had met its burden of establishing that certain alienage-related evidence had been obtained independent of any constitutional violation; and 2) here, the government had the opportunity to show that the alienage-related evidence was obtained from an independent source, but explicitly chose not to do so.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/31/2013
• Published 07/31/2013

Judges

• WESLEY

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel