U.S. v. Hernandez-Guerrero, Criminal No. 97-0965-R.
| Decision Date | 01 May 1997 |
| Docket Number | Criminal No. 97-0965-R. |
| Citation | 963 F.Supp. 933 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of California |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Guadalupe HERNANDEZ-GUERRERO, Defendant. |
Laura Marran, Asst. U.S. Atty., San Diego, CA, for Plaintiff.
Benjamin L. Coleman, Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., San Diego, CA, for Defendant.
ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS THE INDICTMENT
This matter comes before the Court on Defendant Hernandez-Guerrero's Motion to Dismiss the Indictment pursuant to Fed. R.Crim.P. 12(b). Defendant Hernandez-Guerrero (hereinafter "Defendant") claims that in enacting 8 U.S.C. § 1326, Congress exceeded its constitutional authority.
For the reasons stated below, Defendant's Motion is DENIED.
On January 19, 1997, Border Patrol agents arrested Defendant one mile west of Campo, California. Defendant allegedly waived his Miranda rights, and informed the Government that he was a Mexican citizen, who entered the United States illegally on January 19, 1997. The Government claims that Defendant has been deported from the United States seven times, and that he has sustained approximately ten misdemeanor and felony convictions.
On March 26, 1997, a federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment against Defendant, charging him with a violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and § 1326(b)(1).
Defendant filed the present motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in enacting 8 U.S.C. § 1326.1
The Supreme Court repeatedly has held that "statutes should be construed whenever possible so as to uphold their constitutionality." See, e.g., United States v. Vuitch, 402 U.S. 62, 70, 91 S.Ct. 1294, 1298, 28 L.Ed.2d 601 (1971). In particular, immigration statutes are accorded special deference, and the Court will not nullify an immigration statute unless no rational basis for the statute exists. See Adams v. Howerton, 673 F.2d 1036, 1042 (9th Cir.), citing Hampton v. Mow Sun Wong, 426 U.S. 88, 96 S.Ct. 1895, 48 L.Ed.2d 495 (1976), cert. denied, 458 U.S. 1111, 102 S.Ct. 3494, 73 L.Ed.2d 1373 (1982).
As described below, there are at least two bases for § 1326's constitutionality. First, Congress has the authority to pass § 1326 as incident to the inherent power of a sovereign nation to regulate immigration. Second, Congress has the power to pass § 1326 as necessary and proper to the exercise of its authority under the Commerce Clause.
Much like Heimdall's control regarding who could enter Asgard, located in the Heavens, across the bifrost bridge, Congress has plenary immigration power to determine who may enter into the United States across its borders.2 See Kleindienst v. Mandel, 408 U.S. 753, 765-67, 92 S.Ct. 2576, 2582-84, 33 L.Ed.2d 683 (1972) (). Indeed, "over no conceivable subject is the legislative power of Congress more complete than it is over the admission of aliens." Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Stranahan, 214 U.S. 320, 339, 29 S.Ct. 671, 676, 53 L.Ed. 1013 (1909).
Defendant concedes that Congress has the power to pass civil legislation to regulate immigration. Defendant contends, however, that Congress does not have the power to pass criminal laws to regulate immigration. Defendant cites no direct authority to support his position, claiming instead that the issue presented is one of first impression.
In oral argument before the Court, Defendant posited that the States may impose criminal penalties upon persons who enter the United States unlawfully. In so arguing, Defendant misconstrued basic tenets of federalism. The Framers originally envisioned "a system of dual sovereignty between the States and the Federal Government," in which the federal government would have only limited powers. See Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 458, 111 S.Ct. 2395, 2399, 115 L.Ed.2d 410 (1991). As written by James Madison:
[t]he powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.
The Federalist Papers No. 45 at 137 (John Hopkins Univ. Press ed., 1981). Ultimately, the Tenth Amendment embodied the principle that "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." U.S. Const. Amend. X.
Defendant argues that Congress may pass criminal laws only when such laws are necessary and proper to the execution of a specifically enumerated constitutional power. Defendant asserts that because the Constitution does not explicitly delegate immigration authority to Congress, Congress lacks the power to enact criminal statutes governing immigration. Defendant cites no authority for such a proposition, and the Court has found none.
Rather, the Supreme Court has stated that "it would be plainly competent for congress to declare the act of an alien in remaining unlawfully within the United States to be an offence punishable by fine or imprisonment, if such offence were to be established by a judicial trial." Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228, 235, 16 S.Ct. 977, 980, 41 L.Ed. 140 (1896). While Defendant claims that Wong Wing is "outdated", Defendant cites no authority that contradicts the above Supreme Court dicta, despite the fact that the courts have had over one hundred years to do so.
Moreover, it appears that the two-step analysis referred to by Defendant does not apply to the immigration law he contests. The Supreme Court has held that:
[t]he broad statement that the federal government can exercise no powers except those specifically enumerated in the Constitution, and such implied powers as are necessary and proper to carry into effect the enumerated powers, is categorically true only in respect of our internal affairs. In that field, the primary purpose of the Constitution was to carve from the general mass of legislative powers then possessed by the states such portions as it was thought desirable to vest in the federal government, leaving those not included in the enumeration still in the states. That this doctrine applies only to powers which the states had is self evident. And since the states severally never possessed international powers, such powers could not have been carved from the mass of state powers but obviously were transmitted to the United States from some other source.
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304, 315-16, 57 S.Ct. 216, 219, 81 L.Ed. 255 (1936) (emphasis added) (citations omitted).
The above quotation highlights a fatal flaw in Defendant's argument. By definition, immigration statutes govern the United States' relations with foreign nationals and foreign States, and do not implicate solely internal affairs. The two-pronged test that provides the basis for Defendant's argument simply does not apply to immigration legislation.
Moreover, the States do not have the power to regulate immigration. Under our federalist system of government, "the National Legislature ... legislate[s] in all cases for the general interest of the union, and also in those to which the States are separately incompetent, or in which the harmony of the United States may be interrupted by the exercise of individual legislation." Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison 380 (W.W. Norton & Co. ed., 1966), cited in Donald H. Regan, How to Think about the Federal Commerce Power and Incidentally Rewrite United States v. Lopez, 94 Mich. L.Rev. 554, 555-56 (1995). It is manifest that immigration is a classic area of national import that requires uniformity. Substantial precedent has established that Congress has plenary power to govern immigration issues. See, e.g., Kleindienst v. Mandel, 408 U.S. 753, 765-66, 92 S.Ct. 2576, 2582-84, 33 L.Ed.2d 683 (1972). Indeed, the "power to regulate immigration is unquestionably exclusively a federal power." De Canas v. Bica, 424 U.S. 351, 354-55, 96 S.Ct. 933, 936, 47 L.Ed.2d 43 (1976).
Not only does Congress have the authority to regulate immigration, but Congress exhibited an intent to preemptively occupy the immigration sphere by passing the comprehensive, detailed regulatory scheme embodied in the Immigration and Nationality Act, § 101 et seq., as amended, 8 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq. See, e.g., League of United Latin American Citizens v. Wilson, 908 F.Supp. 755, 775-76, 786 (C.D.Cal.1995). Accordingly, the States are precluded from regulating immigration, and state laws that had the effect of regulating immigration have been held unconstitutional. See id. Thus, contrary to Defendant's position, the States do not have the power to draft criminal laws regulating immigration.3
Accordingly, if Congress did not have constitutional authority to regulate immigration with criminal penalties, then neither Congress nor the States would be permitted to enact laws imposing criminal sanctions upon individuals who repeatedly entered the United States illegally. Such a legal vacuum would be untenable, and indeed, no precedent exists to support such a predicament. Rather, courts have noted that Congress must be afforded sufficient latitude to adopt policies necessary and proper for the fulfillment of its legislative duties. See,...
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