News & Events

Simpson Thacher is representing three allegedly undocumented aliens who were placed into immigration removal proceedings based on evidence obtained during an unconstitutionally extended traffic stop. The Firm’s clients were part of a group of men traveling home to New York from an AA conference in Georgia when the van in which they were traveling was pulled over by a Pennsylvania state trooper for alleged speeding. When the state trooper observed that the van’s occupants were people of color, he demanded identification from everyone, had the van follow him off the highway and detained it for more than two hours, during which time the state trooper called and waited for ICE to arrive.

After the van occupants were unsuccessful in moving the Immigration Court to suppress the government’s evidence, Simpson Thacher agreed to represent, pro bono, the van residents who live in New York. In the case of this particular client, the Firm sought reconsideration of the motion to suppress, which was denied. The Simpson Thacher team then appealed the Immigration Court decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). (Since the cases were in different procedural postures, motions to reconsider were separately filed for the Firm’s two remaining clients before other New York Immigration Judges. These other clients have forthcoming evidentiary hearings.) 

On April 22, 2020, a three-member panel of the BIA sustained the Firm’s appeal that extension of a traffic stop on the basis of race or perceived ethnicity violates our client’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The BIA remanded the case to the Immigration Court for an evidentiary hearing as to the facts alleged by our client, finding “respondent . . . should be given a hearing at which he can present evidence” to establish a “prima facie case that the extension of the traffic stop violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution . . . [potentially] warranting suppression.” 

The Simpson Thacher team representing the three clients includes Mike Osnato, Anar Patel, Stephen DiGregoria, Andrew Boccio, and former associates, Karen Hunt and Ellie Gladstone.