W.D.Ark.: Speaking Spanish isn’t even a factor in RS or PC for a vehicle search

The fact the driver of a car spoke Spanish was not reasonable suspicion or probable cause because at least 10% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish. The search of the car was without probable cause, and the exclusionary would be applied because this wasn’t even close. United States v. Brenes, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109187 (W.D. Ark. July 1, 2019):

That those travelers in this case spoke another language than English does nothing to bolster the Government’s argument that probable cause to arrest or search existed. A substantial number of people living in the United States speak a foreign language, and specifically Spanish. See United States Census Bureau, Language Use in the United States: 2011, p. 7, tbl. 2 (Aug. 2013) (available at https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-22/acs-22.pdf) (showing increase in Spanish-speaking population of United States from 11,116,194 in 1980 to 36,995,602 by 2010). There is no evidence, in either the Government’s response or objective reality, that speaking Spanish correlates significantly with conducting criminal activity. Brenes and Jimenez-Cruz’s Spanish communications, coupled with the apparently innocent circumstances of their cross-country travel, do not help to establish probable cause to arrest or search. The fact that Jimenez-Cruz was traveling with Brenes while she drove on a suspended license also does not support a finding of probable cause particularized to Jimenez-Cruz because “a person’s mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not, without more, give rise to probable cause to search that person.” Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 91 (1979).

The unwarranted arrest of Jimenez-Cruz and the search of the suitcase were not supported by probable cause. As with Brenes, the grossly negligent nature of the constitutional violations by Van Buren police officers, one of whom is responsible for training new police officers, requires suppression of the evidence to deter continued unconstitutional police investigative tactics. Because Jimenez-Cruz was being permitted to leave with the suitcase full of contraband prior to the unlawful arrest and search, discovery of the evidence was not inevitable, and no exception to the warrant requirement saves the Government’s evidence from exclusion.