Federal Appeals Court: Illegal Aliens Do Not Have Second Amendment Rights

by Eric Lendrum

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that illegal aliens do not have the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, due to the fact that they are not American citizens.

As reported by Fox News, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that federal law prohibiting illegal aliens from owning firearms is legal, as the Constitution does not apply to anyone who has entered the United States illegally.

The decision came as the result of an appeal by an illegal alien named Jose Paz Medina-Cantu, who had been arrested in Texas in 2022 by the Border Patrol. He was charged with illegal possession of a handgun, and illegally re-entering the country after having already been deported.

Although he pleaded guilty to the charges, his lawyers argued during his appeal that the gun charge was a violation of his Constitutional rights. In their appeal, the lawyers cited the landmark Supreme Court decision in the 2022 case New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, where the court ruled in a 6-3 majority that Americans do not have to provide a reason when seeking a concealed-carry permit. This ruling has led to numerous anti-gun laws across the country being challenged in court, with many being overturned based on Bruen’s precedent.

After hearing the appeal of the illegal’s lawyers, the three-judge panel ruled that the rights granted to American citizens by the Constitution do not apply to illegals.

“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,” said U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho in a concurring opinion. “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.”

“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,’” Judge Ho continued. “So illegal aliens are not part of ‘the people’ entitled to the protections of the Second Amendment.’

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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.