Originally Posted by
jphripjah
Couldn't the passengers disembarking a domestic flight just refuse to show any documents to any law enforcement officers who are asking for them?
Depends a lot on the jurisdiction and the type of stop.
In a purely consensual stop, yes, you can refuse and the refusal cannot be used as reasonable suspicion.
For detention (Terry stop), most states do not require one to provide identity but almost half the states do require one to provide identity or more. To make it more confusing and worse, some states do not require it but localities may (looking at you, Virginia!)
For an arrest - yes, you must.
This situation would probably be defended as both a detention (Terry stop, reasonable suspicion) and an administrative search (suspicionless, warrantless search). Identity can be required during an administrative search.
I believe that not only would any court would rule such a search was legal under either doctrine and rule that the actual intrusion - merely providing identity - was so minimally intrusive as to be no intrusion at all. Furthermore, it would rule that if identity can be required to get on the plane, it is silly to think it would be a hardship for it to be required to get off the plane.
Even though this incident happened at a port of entry where the CBP necessarily has jurisdiction, I believe that issue would be rendered a non-issue because the officer was performing a different function (ICE) rather than a CBP function; the airport police or another LE agency could have also assisted ICE in this way as they regularly do.
To correct some misinformation in someone else's earlier post: Reasonable suspicion, (articulable, specific and individualized facts) is (generally) required to detain. But not always (administrative searches with or without discretion).
Probable cause is not necessary for a detention. Probable cause is necessary to arrest. Arrest (indeterminate time period) is not the same detention (a brief period).
While refusal is generally not sufficient to establish probable cause (but see above about jurisdictions that require providing identity), refusal can be justification for extending a detention until identity is established. In practical terms, that could be hours and hours......