FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT LUIS ENRIQUE SANCHEZ, AKA No. 14-71768 Enrique Cruz Sanchez, AKA Luis Llamas Sanchez, AKA Luis Charles Agency No. Sanchez, AKA Enrique Sanchez A076-359-028 Cruz, AKA Luis Enrique Sanchez Llamas, Petitioner, OPINION v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Argued and Submitted March 8, 2017 Decided August 30, 2017 Opinion withdrawn July 18, 2018 Pasadena, California Filed September 19, 2018 Before: Kim McLane Wardlaw, Richard A. Paez, and Morgan B. Christen, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge Paez; Concurrence by Judge Paez 2 SANCHEZ V. SESSIONS SUMMARY * Immigration The panel granted Luis Enrique Sanchez’s petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals that affirmed an immigration judge’s denial of Sanchez’s motion to suppress evidence, holding that a petitioner may be entitled to termination of removal proceedings without prejudice for egregious regulatory violations. During a fishing trip, Sanchez’s boat lost power and Coast Guard officers arrived and towed the boat to Channel Islands Harbor in California. The Coast Guard detained Sanchez, and he was later taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection and placed in removal proceedings, where he unsuccessfully sought to suppress evidence of his alienage and entry into the United States. The panel held that Sanchez had made a prima facie showing that the Coast Guard officers who detained him violated 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(b)(2), which requires that an “immigration officer” have “reasonable suspicion, based on specific articulable facts” that a person is, or is attempting to be, engaged in an offense against the United States, or is an alien illegally in the United States, in order for the immigration officer to briefly detain the person for questioning. * This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. SANCHEZ V. SESSIONS 3 As an initial matter, the panel concluded that the Coast Guard officers who detained Sanchez were acting as “immigration officers” within the meaning of the regulation. The panel explained that the Coast Guard is required by law to enforce or assist in the enforcement of all Federal laws on, under, and over the high seas and waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and that when Coast Guard officers detain individuals in service of the Immigration & Nationality Act, they act as immigration agents subject to the same regulations as their counterparts in the immigration agencies. The panel next explained that evidence may be excluded for a regulatory violation where: (1) the agency violated one of its regulations; (2) the subject regulation serves a “purpose of benefit to the alien”; and (3) the violation “prejudiced interests of the alien which were protected by the regulation.” Here, the panel concluded that Sanchez had made a prima facie showing that the Coast Guard officers violated 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(b)(2), agreeing with Sanchez that ...
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