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This is one of the wildest (in farout way) tale of alien smuggling resulting in a felony 1324(a)(1)(A) transport charge I have seen lately. Yes, the background is made up for a bad @lifetimetv movie [29 yo pretty visa overstay working as a 'transporter' in a big black car... but
there is a lot more. For one, while CBP is in 'meltdown mode' per @secNielsen the interiror checkpoints are alive & well and supervisory CBP officers are lurking on roads more than100 miles from border looking for 'out-of-place behevior': 'big black cars" driven by young women?1? 
So, here is the Terry stop buildup by CBP:
* female wearing dark colored shirt
* front license plate "appearing" to be falling
* looking lost in Niland
* grasping steering wheel tighly w 2 hands ... Sounds familiar?
* female wearing dark colored shirt
* front license plate "appearing" to be falling
* looking lost in Niland
* grasping steering wheel tighly w 2 hands ... Sounds familiar?
So, SBPA follows the suspicious driver and while it sees no other people in the vehicle request a check up and finds that -- oh wait -- the car has "an expired registration", which in this agent's experience is indicative of a smuggler -- OK then
So, the border patrol agent strats to follow the suspicious lost driver tries to get her attention by waiving from his window; she ignores him, and he continues to follow her while she pulls into a ... resort! This all appears commical but the question is ,,,
... after agent got car registration & name of the owner did he also learned that the dodgy driver was a visa overstay? Did he actually decided to pull her over because "he saw a passenger pop up in the back seat" as the tale goes in Complaint or bc of her immigration status?
Well, here is what the complaint says what happened right after the agent pulled the driver:
Yes, he asks her apparently abt citizenship and immigration status? maybe because of her accent or maybe because he already knew she was a foreign national and had allegedly overstayed her O [extraordinary abilities] visa. Dragneva tells him she does not have her visa w her ...
.... in crim complaint the supervisory CBP officer states "A non-immigrant within the United States is required to be in possession of their visa at all times." wrong! Read the INA buddy! Once noncitizen is admitted based on a lawfully isssued visa, the I-94 is what matters ...
... but there is nothing requiring that ppl carry the I-94 because CBP no longer issues paper I-94. A supervisory CBP officer should have known that, don't you think?
The supervisory officer's "hunch" was right and Dragneva, according to the complaint, voluntarily confessed after waiving Miranda. Here is the smuggling story, if you care: Dragneva respond to a "drivers wanted" craiglist adv offering $1000/trip to "transport ppl"
... she gets text asking if available to pick up 2 ppl on Hwy 80 (near Calexico). She accepts; given 3 points of reference loc w instruction to driveby various places & wait. At one, 2 ppl were waiting & got into her car. Dragneva claimed she had no idea they were illegally in US
Sorry, I screwed up and did not number the tweets in this thread. @threadreaderapp could you #unroll. 🙋♀️
