From Fox News: Illegal migrants do not have the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court in New Orleans has ruled, rejecting arguments by a Mexican man who was convicted of illegally possessing a handgun and argued that the ban was unconstitutional.
A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that federal prohibitions on illegal immigrants owning firearms was lawful, and Second Amendment rights do not apply to those who have entered the country illegally.
The ruling came in an appeal by Jose Paz Medina-Cantu, who had been arrested by Border Patrol agents in Texas in 2022 and charged with illegally possessing a handgun and unlawfully re-entering the country after being previously deported.
Medina-Cantu pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year to 15 months in prison, but he preserved the right to argue on appeal that the gun charge violated his right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.
U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho, a conservative appointee of Republican President Trump, wrote in the ruling, “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.”
“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,” Judge Ho added.
Ho also wrote:
“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.’
The Fifth Circuit upheld 922(g)(5) today, saying that “illegal aliens are not ‘members of the political community’ covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.” https://t.co/x5OFxEJM9h pic.twitter.com/LnOavYpuJO
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) August 27, 2024
Illegal migrants do not have gun rights protected by 2nd Amendment: federal appeals court https://t.co/nUk4wdEza2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 28, 2024
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