USCA11 Case: 19-11131 Date Filed: 04/30/2021 Page: 1 of 22 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-11131 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 3:17-cr-00444-WKW-WC-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus GUILLERMO GONZALEZ-ZEA, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ________________________ (April 30, 2021) Before NEWSOM and BRANCH, Circuit Judges, and RAY,* District Judge. BRANCH, Circuit Judge: * Honorable William M. Ray, II, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 19-11131 Date Filed: 04/30/2021 Page: 2 of 22 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agents in the process of staking out a residence in search of an ICE fugitive, whose social security number had been linked to a utility account at the address in question, stopped a car leaving the residence in the early morning hours of September 26, 2017. Guillermo Gonzalez-Zea was driving that car. ICE agents asked Gonzalez-Zea for his name and requested identification. Gonzalez-Zea produced an ID card issued in Mexico and admitted that he did not have any identification issued by the United States because he was here illegally. The officers explained that they were looking for an ICE fugitive, and Gonzalez-Zea stated that he lived alone, but he gave the officers permission to search his house. During the search of the residence, the officers discovered multiple firearms in plain view and arrested Gonzalez-Zea for possession of a firearm and live ammunition by an illegal alien in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(5) and 924(a)(2). Gonzalez-Zea moved to suppress the evidence, and the district court denied his motion. On appeal, Gonzalez-Zea argues that the district court should have granted his motion to suppress because: (1) the ICE officers did not have the requisite individualized reasonable suspicion to stop him; (2) the ICE officers unlawfully prolonged the stop; and (3) Gonzalez-Zea’s consent to search his home was involuntary. After careful review and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm. 2 USCA11 Case: 19-11131 Date Filed: 04/30/2021 Page: 3 of 22 I. Background Between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. on September 26, 2017, three ICE officers, Purdy, Skillern, and Hinkle, staked out a house in Heflin, Alabama (the “Heflin house”). The officers sought to apprehend Jose Rodolfo Alfaro-Aguilar, a Honduran national and an ICE fugitive with a warrant for his deportation. 2 ICE agents believed Alfaro-Aguilar might be at the Heflin house because a few months earlier a social security number associated with Alfaro-Aguilar had been used to connect a utility service at the Heflin house—although there was no evidence that the utility was connected in Alfaro-Aguilar’s name. The ICE investigation also revealed that the same social security number was associated with another individual by the name of Jose Sanchez who had 26 aliases and who was associated with 15 possible addresses, with the Heflin address being the most recent location.3 During the stakeout, all three ICE officers wore ICE badges and bulletproof vests with ICE printed on …
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