United States v. Sineneng-Smith, No. 15-10614 (9th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this Case8 U.S.C. 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) is unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment because it criminalizes a substantial amount of protected expression in relation to the statute's narrow legitimate sweep. Subsection (iv) permits a felony prosecution of any person who "encourages or induces" an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States if the encourager knew, or recklessly disregarded the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law. The Ninth Circuit reversed defendant's conviction with respect to the "encourage or induce" counts. The panel affirmed with respect to the mail fraud counts in a memorandum disposition.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel reversed the district court’s judgment with respect to the defendant’s convictions on two counts of encouraging and inducing an alien to remain in the United States for the purposes of financial gain, in violation of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) & 1324(a)(1)(B)(i); vacated the defendant’s sentence; and remanded for resentencing. The panel held that subsection (iv) – which permits a felony prosecution of any person who “encourages or induces” an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States if the encourager knew, or recklessly disregarded the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law – is unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment because it criminalizes a substantial amount of protected expression in relation to its narrow band of legitimately prohibited conduct and unprotected expression. In a concurrently filed memorandum disposition, the panel affirmed the judgment with respect to the defendant’s convictions on two counts of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341. UNITED STATES V. SINENENG-SMITH 3
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on December 8, 2020.
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