Judge Lawrence Kahn
Plaintiff became a U.S. citizen in 1998. In 2009, he was arrested by Border Patrol agents who insisteddespite two valid forms of identificationthat he was an illegal alien named Vasquez-Mentado. Plaintiff remained in custody until after his wife brought his Naturalization Certificate and U.S. passport to the Border Patrol station. In addition to false arrest and false imprisonment underlying his claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, Plaintiff’s Bivens claim asserted violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Despite dismissing plaintiff’s Bivens action against individual defendant Oaks, the court denied dismissal of his FTCA claims. On the facts alleged, defendants unreasonably misidentified plaintiff as Vasquez-Mentado. In denying dismissal of Bivens claims as against Buitron and Lorenzo, the court found plaintiff alleged facts suggesting "a potential abuse of power" exceeding mere negligence. It could not determine whether Buitron and Lorenzo were shielded by qualified immunity. They only had plaintiff’s driver’s license to make their probable cause determination. Further Buitron and Lorenzo failed to make any efforts to determine the validity of that license before handcuffing plaintiff and transporting him to the Border Patrol station.