US: Nevada court ruling could reshape US immigration policy

A federal judge ruled a 1929 law that makes it illegal for deported migrants to re-enter the US is unconstitutional.

In a court ruling with potentially broad implications for United States immigration cases, a federal judge in Nevada has found a criminal law that dates to 1929 and makes it a felony for a person who has been deported from the US to return to the country is unconstitutional. US District Judge Miranda Du in Reno, in an order issued on Wednesday, found the law widely known as Section 1326 is based on “racist, nativist roots” and discriminates against Mexican and Latino people in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment. “Anybody who works in federal courts knows the statute,” Franny Forsman, retired longtime chief of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Nevada, said on Thursday. “There really are a large number of cases that have been brought over the years under that section. They’re mostly public defender cases.”