A federal appeals court in New Orleans has rejected the arguments of a Mexican man convicted of possessing an illegal handgun who argued the ban is unconstitutional, ruling that illegal immigrants have no right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.
A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a federal law banning illegal immigrants from possessing firearms is legal and that Second Amendment rights do not apply to people who are in the country illegally.
The ruling came on appeal of Jose Paz Medina Cantu, who was arrested by Border Patrol agents in Texas in 2022 and charged with illegal possession of a handgun and illegally re-entering the country after previously being deported.
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Workers set up a handgun display on the exhibit hall floor ahead of the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis on April 25, 2019. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Medina-Cantu pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 months in prison last year, but reserved the right to appeal, arguing that the gun charges violated his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
His lawyers based their argument on the landmark 2022 Supreme Court ruling by a 6-3 conservative majority in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established a new standard for determining whether a law violates the Second Amendment.
The Bruen decision requires that gun laws be “consistent with the historical tradition of gun control in this country,” and the three-judge panel said the Supreme Court's recent decisions on gun rights “do not clearly invalidate our precedent that the language of the Second Amendment does not encompass illegal immigrants.”
Since the Bruen decision, many federal and state gun control measures have been challenged in court with mixed results. Following the decision, many laws have been declared invalid.
Medina-Cantu's lawyers argued that the ruling also overturns a 2011 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in United States v. Portillo Muñoz, which upheld immigration-related bans, because there was no historical tradition of disarming people solely based on their immigration status dating back to the adoption of the Second Amendment in 1791.
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Firearms are displayed for sale on shelves at a McBride Guns store on Aug. 25, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The three-judge panel said the Portillo Munoz decision “remains valid law” and that U.S. citizen rights do not apply to illegal immigrants.
“The Second Amendment protects the right of 'the people' to keep and bear arms. This Court holds that 'the people' for purposes of the Second Amendment does not include illegal immigrants,” U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho, a conservative appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, wrote in a concurring opinion.
“Common sense tells us that an illegal immigrant does not become a 'member of the national community' just because he entered the country illegally, any more than a thief becomes the owner of property just because he steals it.”
Ho further shed light on the precedent of this case.
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A group of migrants scale a wall in Tijuana, Mexico, on June 7, 2024, in an attempt to seek asylum in the United States. (Carlos Moreno/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Courts have repeatedly explained that an 'alien does not become a constitutional citizen of our nation by attempting to enter the nation in a manner prohibited by law'…But, of course, that is the very definition of an illegal alien – someone who 'attempts to enter' our nation in a manner prohibited by law.”
“Therefore, illegal immigrants are not considered 'citizens' entitled to Second Amendment protections.”
Ho added that for illegal immigrants to appeal to the Constitution would be to acknowledge that the United States is governed by the supreme law.
“And the power to exclude.” [aliens from the United States] “The Court concluded that under our Constitution, 'excluded peoples cannot claim rights generally available in lands to which they do not belong, either as citizens or for any other reason,'” Ho wrote.
