Amicus brief in U.S. v. Suquilanda

Human Rights First joined with colleagues at Asian-Americans Advancing Justice and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in submitting an amicus brief in U.S. v. Suquilanda, a case challenging the legality of the federal unlawful reentry statute, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The brief discusses the blatantly racist and anti-Asian origins of the plenary power doctrine, which has been used to justify minimal constitutional scrutiny of racist immigration laws.  The brief argues that the if the plenary power doctrine is not discarded altogether, it should be severely limited, and that it should certainly not be applied in cases like Suquilanda, to shield a race-based equal protection challenge to a criminal law from ordinary constitutional review.