Court: Law against encouraging illegal immigration could violate First Amendment
Source: Politico
By JOSH GERSTEIN 09/19/2017 12:12 AM EDT
A federal law that makes it a crime to encourage or induce foreigners to enter or stay in the U.S. illegally may run afoul of the First Amendment, a federal appeals court suggested in an unusual order Monday.
A 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel asked federal public defenders and immigrant rights groups to submit amicus briefs arguing that a San Jose, Calif, woman was improperly convicted because the law is vague or overbroad.
Immigration consultant Evelyn Sineneng-Smith was convicted at a jury trial in 2013 of inducing foreigners from the Philippines to stay in the U.S. unlawfully by charging them to file labor and immigration petitions that had no chance of winning the immigrants legal status.
At oral arguments in April on Sineneng-Smith's appeal, all three 9th Circuit judges expressed concerns about the government's position that someone could be convicted under the statute that makes it illegal to encourage or induce "an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/09/19/illegal-immigration-first-amendment-242868
= new reply since forum marked as read