FILED United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit PUBLISH July 14, 2020 Christopher M. Wolpert UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Clerk of Court TENTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. No. 19-2058 RAQUEL CORTEZ, Defendant-Appellant. ---------------------------- ---------------------------- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. No. 19-2059 JOSEFINA REYES-MORENO, Defendant-Appellant. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO (D.C. NOS. 2:18-CR-02639-KG-1 and 2) Daniel Rubin (Meghan D. McLoughlin, Assistant Federal Public Defender, on the joint briefs), Office of the Federal Public Defender, Las Cruces, New Mexico, for Appellants. Jennifer Rozzoni, Assistant United States Attorney (John C. Anderson, United States Attorney, with her on the briefs), Office of the United States Attorney, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Appellee. Before TYMKOVICH, Chief Judge, SEYMOUR, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges. TYMKOVICH, Chief Judge. After a routine traffic stop in New Mexico led to Raquel Cortez and Josefina Reyes-Moreno’s indictment for conspiring to transport undocumented aliens, both defendants jointly moved to suppress evidence based on Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations they allege occurred during the stop. The district court found no constitutional violations and denied the motion. We agree no constitutional violations occurred during the stop. No Fourth Amendment violation occurred because none of the law enforcement officers’ initial questions impermissibly delayed the stop and, during the stop, the officers developed reasonable suspicion the defendants were transporting undocumented aliens, justifying a further detention until Border Patrol arrived. No Fifth Amendment violation occurred because neither Cortez nor Reyes-Moreno faced custodial interrogation during the stop, rendering the absence of Miranda warnings harmless. We therefore AFFIRM. -2- I. Background Sergeant Alvarez, a New Mexico State Police Officer, was parked on State Road 80—a two-lane highway running north-south in southwest New Mexico —when he recorded a northbound pickup truck going 66 mph in a 55 mph zone. Sergeant Alvarez turned on his vehicle’s emergency lights, triggering the vehicle’s dashboard camera, and pulled the pickup over for speeding. The stop occurred about fifty miles from the Mexico border, and State Road 80 does not have a Border Patrol checkpoint on it. Traveling in the pickup were six individuals: Cortez and Reyes-Moreno, two small children, and two adult male passengers. Cortez and Reyes-Moreno, who are biological half-sisters and U.S. citizens, were in the front seat along with one of the children, their nine-year-old niece. The other child, Cortez and Reyes- Moreno’s eleven-year-old nephew, rode in the back with the two adult men. 1 Sergeant Alvarez initially approached the vehicle and spoke to the driver, Cortez. They discussed how fast Cortez had been going, and Sergeant Alvarez asked for Cortez’s license, insurance, and registration. Then, as was his practice, he asked Cortez to come stand at the front right bumper of his police vehicle. She 1 Cortez and Reyes-Moreno’s niece and nephew are children of a third sister who was not present at the stop. -3- obliged, and he followed her back to the squad car. According to his testimony, Sergeant Alvarez did not notice the male passengers in ...
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