United States v. Elizalde-Adame

On March 31, 1999, federal agents with the Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") arrested Libia Elizalde-Adame at an apartment in Chicago where she made counterfeit immigration documents. Acting on a tip from a reliable informant, the agents went to the apartment building and knocked on Elizalde-Adames door. Elizalde-Adame asked, in Spanish, who was there. One of the agents responded in Spanish that she was her new neighbor. Elizalde-Adame then opened the door part way, at which time the agents saw equipment and other items associated with the manufacture of counterfeit immigration documents inside the apartment. The agents then displayed their badges and told Elizalde-Adame that she was under arrest. While Elizalde-Adame was still standing inside her apartment, one of the agents told her to put her hands on the wall and to separate her feet, and she complied. The agents then entered Elizalde-Adames apartment without her consent and searched her. The parties dispute whether the agents gave Elizalde-Adame Miranda warnings before or after entering the apartment. Nevertheless, Elizalde-Adame eventually signed a Miranda waiver form, after which she admitted that she was in the country illegally and that she had been producing the documents for a young male throughout the month preceding the arrest. She then gave the agents consent to search the apartment, whereupon they discovered incriminating equipment and documents.