Page 34 - TPA Journal January February 2025

the ride they could find.” who live in border areas or who even cross the
border to have two phones, one that works in
But Campos’s account of the initial pickup at the Mexico and one that works in America?” He
bridge has radically and diametrically changed answered, “No, ma’am. Actually, it’s common for
once we agreed to hear the case en banc. them to have satellite phones because there is no
Campos’s supplemental en banc reply brief, filed mobile reception along the border.” And further,
about a month before en banc oral argument, when asked “is it suspicious when someone has
admitted that the initial encounter with the car dri- two phones?,” Ramos replied, “When it’s a gov-
ven by Ramos was anything but random: ernment employee or somebody that works pro-
fessionally, no. When it’s an individual that’s
The evidence, however, did not suggest that coming from the border, yes, sir.” had two mis-
Hernandez’s picking up of Campos, Moncada, sions— transporting non-citizens and marijua-
Castro, and Castro’s daughter occurred by chance. na—they could have abandoned Hernandez and
According to [Agent] Kettani, Castro said: [T]hey the contraband and attempted to ca[tch] another
crossed through Ojinaga, OJ, Mexico into ride on IH-10. Instead, they reloaded the car and
Presidio. climbed in with Hernandez and the marijuana.
When the illegal enterprise (illegal entry and
She said that she really didn’t know the other two transportation) expanded in scope (transporting
defendants that they crossed with. They crossed bulk marijuana), they elected to join it. At the very
in the evening. When they went to Presidio, it was least, they committed the marijuana offense to
during the evening. They spent the night there in a accomplish their own unlawful conduct.
ditch under the bridge. She wasn’t really sure. She
said it was outdoors. She stated that the phone In its closing argument to the jury, the government
rang in the morning, and they were trying to look carefully raised doubt as to the defendants’ “inno-
for a ride. They flagged down an individual and cent” conduct. The jury was free to consider that
that’s when the driver went to pick them up. possibility in light of all the evidence. The gov-
ernment argued to the jury, inter alia, as follows:
What happened is clear. The smugglers with
whom Castro, Campos, and Moncada had coordi-
nated either gave them a phone or took their num- So let’s talk about this story. They want you to
ber to relay it to Hernandez. He called that number believe that they walked into the country with a
in the morning. Believing him nearby, they waved female and her daughter and saw someone that
[sic] at the car nearest them, and he picked them they have never met and said, Hey, can I have a
up. This is a common alien-smuggling strategy. ride?

Regarding this story of collusion between the Sure. I’ve never met you. Oh, and you have a
defendants and the driver, Campos’s supplemental female and her daughter? That’s not suspicious.
brief concluded, “The jury could not have reason- Hop in. I’ll take you to a park.
ably disbelieved the accounts of Moncada,
Campos, and Castro because they were sponsored And so they go to a park and they drop them off
by the government and corroborated by the inves- at a random park. This kid leaves and half an hour
tigation.” later he comes back.

And on the subject of telephones, there is other These grown men are putting the blame on a 17-
critical evidence: Campos was found to have two year-old boy. Do you believe that that 17-year-
phones. At trial, Border Patrol Agent Ramos was old boy loaded up 128 kilograms by himself in 30
asked, “Isn’t it really common for a lot of people minutes?

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