WASHINGTON DC – The US Supreme Court on Friday gave the go-ahead to a federal law that criminalizes encouraging or inducing illegal immigration, saying it does not unconstitutionally infringe free speech rights.
The highest court ruled in a 7-2 vote to uphold defendant Helaman Hansen’s sentences under the law.
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the provision in question “prohibits only the intentional solicitation or facilitation of certain unlawful acts,” not including protected speech. As such, the law does not stretch so widely as to be unconstitutional, Barrett wrote.
The justices considered the Biden administration’s appeal of a ruling in Hansen’s case that struck down the law, saying it violated free speech protections under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Hansen, from 2012 to 2016, ran a program charging up to $10,000 for an alleged path to US citizenship. She claimed that undocumented immigrants could become citizens through an adult adoption service and convinced 471 people to participate.
At the 2017 trial, he was convicted on two counts of violating a federal law that prohibits encouraging or inducing illegal immigration for private financial gain. He was also convicted of 12 counts of mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud, convictions not at issue in the Supreme Court case. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
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The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law in February 2022, saying its language was broad and could lead to someone being convicted simply for saying, “I encourage you to reside in the United States.” .
The Supreme Court in 2020 heard a similar case but evaded a ruling on the law’s constitutionality.
