How has the court upheld a finding of reasonable suspicion in a case where police stopped a vehicle allegedly being used for smuggling illegal aliens?

When courts have upheld a finding of reasonable suspicion, it has been on the basis of more particularized information. In United States v. Garcia-Nunez, 709 F.2d 559 (9th Cir.1983), officers had received an anonymous tip that a specific address and vehicle were being used for smuggling aliens. ⁴ Upon investigation of the tip, officers observed such particularized behavior as a man conducting "counter-surveillance" and serving as a lookout. On the lookout's signal, four men walked hurriedly from the suspect's house to the exact car identified in the tip. The men sat low in the rear seat and appeared to be of Mexican descent. The court held that these factors together supported a finding of reasonable suspicion.

In United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 101 S.Ct. 690, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981), officers had on several occasions observed the tracks of 8 to 20 people leading across the desert from the Mexican border to a specific point on Highway 86, a road running parallel to the border. Through careful study, these officers determined the likely night of the next alien smuggle, the precise mile marker of the highway pickup, the type of vehicle that would be used to carry many passengers, the time the pickup would be made, the direction the vehicle would come from and return to, and how long it would take the vehicle to get from the officers' stake-out point to the pick-up point and back again. Id. at 413-15, 101 S.Ct. at 692-94. Based on this information, they stopped the one vehicle which fit every criterion and found six illegal aliens inside. The court held that reasonable suspicion existed since, based on the totality of circumstances and in light of the officers' experience, the police could reasonably surmise that the vehicle stopped was engaged in criminal activity. Id. at 421-22, 101 S.Ct. at 697.

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