US Supreme Court inclined to allow law against encouraging illegal
immigration
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[March 28, 2023]
By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday
appeared inclined to uphold a federal law that made it a crime to
encourage illegal immigration, signaling agreement with President Joe
Biden's administration that the measure does not violate constitutional
free speech protections.
The justices heard arguments in the administration's appeal of a lower
court's decision in a case from California to strike down the
decades-old provision, part of a larger immigration statute, as overly
broad because it may criminalize legitimate speech protected by the U.S.
Constitution's First Amendment.
The case involves a man named Helaman Hansen who deceived immigrants
through a phony "adult adoption" program and was convicted in 2017 of
violating that law and others.
In invalidating the law, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals threw out Hansen's conviction for violating the provision,
which bars inducing or encouraging noncitizens "to come to, enter or
reside" in the United States illegally, including for financial gain.
The 9th Circuit upheld Hansen's convictions on mail and wire fraud
charges.
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The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its conservative
justices appeared to agree with Biden's administration that the law does
not cover certain hypothetical scenarios that concerned the 9th Circuit,
such as simply encouraging immigrants in the country illegally to remain
in the United States or advising them about available social services.
The law targets only facilitating or soliciting unlawful conduct, not
"general advocacy," the administration argued.
Federal prosecutors accused Hansen of deceiving immigrants in the United
States illegally by promising them between 2012 and 2016 that they could
gain American citizenship through an "adult adoption" program operated
by his Sacramento-based business, Americans Helping America Chamber of
Commerce.
The prosecution said Hansen persuaded at least 471 people to join his
program, charging each of them up to $10,000 even though he "knew that
the adult adoptions that he touted would not lead to U.S. citizenship."
Hansen and his program collected more than $1.8 million through the
scheme, authorities said.
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People walk across the plaza of the U.S.
Supreme Court building on the first day of the court's new term in
Washington, U.S. October 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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"He's victimized these people, and it may be a poster child for a
situation in which the underlying offense might be modest but you
might want to criminalize it because he's taking advantage of very
vulnerable people," conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch told Esha
Bhandari, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union
representing Hansen.
Hansen was sentenced to 20 years behind bars but is out of prison
while his appeal is pending.
Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett voiced doubts about concerns
raised by various free speech, libertarian and press advocacy groups
that the law threatens attorneys, doctors, scholars and anyone else
who speaks in support of immigration.
"The statute's been on the books for a long time and there's an
absence of prosecutions. There's also an absence of demonstrated
chilling effect," Barrett said.
The court's liberal justices appeared to agree with the 9th
Circuit's ruling. Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Justice Department
lawyer Brian Fletcher that the administration's narrow view of the
law's real-life applications means it wants the high court to
"rewrite the statute."
"We're criminalizing words related to immigration," Sotomayor told
Fletcher.
The 9th Circuit decision applies in the group of western states over
which it has jurisdiction including Arizona and California, which
border Mexico. The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
which has jurisdiction of a group of other states, also ruled
against the law in a separate case.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/28/images/ads/current/safetytip_sda_topflight_2023.png)
Biden's administration urged the justices to restore an "important
tool for combating activities that exacerbate unlawful immigration,"
particularly because of the high volume of immigration-related
litigation and criminal prosecutions that occur in the states
covered by the 9th Circuit.
A ruling is due by the end of June.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung and John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)
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