Federal Appeals Court Rules That Illegal Aliens Don’t Have Second Amendment Rights
Common sense wins again
Illegal migrants do not have gun rights protected by 2nd Amendment: federal appeals court
A federal appeals court in New Orleans recently ruled that illegal alien invaders don’t have the right to bear arms as outlined by the Second Amendment. The case in question dealt with a Mexican national who was convicted of unlawfully possessing a handgun and contended that the prohibition was unconstitutional.
A three-judge panel of the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, issued a ruling on August 27, 2024 that federal bans on illegal alien invaders owning guns was legal, and Second Amendment rights do not apply to individuals who have entered the US illegally.
The ruling came in response to an appeal by Jose Paz Medina-Cantu, who was previously arrested by Border Patrol agents in Texas in 2022 and charged with the illegal possession of a handgun and illegally re-entering the US after being deported on a previous occasion.
Medina-Cantu pleaded guilty and was sentenced last in 2023 to 15 months in prison. However, he maintained the right to argue on appeal that the firearm charge infringed on his right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.
His legal counsel based their argument on the 2022 landmark New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen decision by the Supreme Court that set a new standard to figure out if a law violates the Second Amendment.
The Bruen ruling mandated that firearm regulations be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation" and the three-judge panel stated that the Supreme Court's recent rulings on gun rights "did not unequivocally abrogate our precedent that the plain text of the Second Amendment does not encompass illegal aliens."
Medina-Cantu's legal counsel also argued that the ruling undermined a 2011 decision by the 5th Circuit, in United States v. Portillo-Munoz, which upheld the prohibition connected to immigration. The lawyers argued that there is no historical tradition going back to the timeframe when the Second Amendment was enacted in 1791 of disarming individuals based exclusively on their immigration status.
The three-judge panel stated that Portillo-Munoz "remains good law" and that the rights of American citizens are not applicable to illegal aliens.
"The Second Amendment protects the right of ‘the people’ to keep and bear arms. Our court has held that the term ‘the people’ under the Second Amendment does not include illegal aliens," U S Circuit Judge James Ho, who former President Donald Trump nominated, wrote in a concurring opinion.
"As to common sense, an illegal alien does not become ‘part of a national community’ by unlawfully entering it, any more than a thief becomes an owner of property by stealing it,” Ho added.
"The Court has repeatedly explained that ‘an alien… does not become one of the people to whom these things are secured by our Constitution by an attempt to enter forbidden by law’… But that’s, of course, the very definition of an illegal alien – one who ‘attempts to enter’ our country in a manner ‘forbidden by law.’
So illegal aliens are not part of ‘the people’ entitled to the protections of the Second Amendment.’
Illegal aliens are not part of the American polity whatsoever, so they are not protected by the Bill of Rights. The only way to deal with them is to deport them from the US. End of discussion.
The appeal to the Second Amendment here is insidious at best. The Left hates the right to bear arms, at least for white citizens. But in the upside down world of anarcho-tyranny, illegal aliens are entitled to these freedoms. This is a ploy to undermine the foundations of the US while allowing illegal alien invaders to subvert the law and demographically displace the Historic American Nation.
Good on the 5th Circuit of Appeals for ruling against this illegal alien invader.