The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case about whether a federal law that prohibits inducing unlawful immigration violates the First Amendment.
The issue before the Supreme Court on Monday: whether a federal law that prohibits inducing unlawful immigration for financial gain violates the First Amendment.Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
The defendant in this case is Helaman Hansen, who conned 471 noncitizens into believing that they could obtain U.S. citizenship through adult adoption. By enrolling these noncitizens in this nonexistent program, Hansen defrauded these people of more than $1.8 million. In 2017, a jury convicted him on 15 counts of mail and wire fraud, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Responding to a question from Sotomayor about a grandmother who worries that her immigration status might be a burden on her children but stays in the U.S. at their urging, Fletcher acknowledged that when family members urge someone to stay, that is the hardest case. He said there is no way to deal with all the variables that could come up, prompting Sotomayor to ask,"Why should we uphold a statute that criminalizes words . . . that's what we're doing with this statute.
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