Courts are beginning to admit that some immigration laws are racist

According to this article on Reuters, by Hassan Kanu

“(Reuters) – A federal judge in Nevada ruled for the first time last week that a longstanding law that makes it a felony to reenter the United States after deportation is unconstitutional because it’s explicitly racist in its origins.

Federal laws make it a misdemeanor to enter the country without permission and a felony to reenter, punishable by up to six months in prison for entry and up to 20 years for reentry. Today, illegal entry and reentry are the most prosecuted crimes in federal courts, according to federal caseload statistics from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts from 2008-2019.

Judge Miranda Du of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada dismissed on Aug. 18 a case against Gustavo Carrillo-Lopez, who was indicted for being in the U.S. after previously being deported. Du held that Carrillo-Lopez had shown that the reentry law was “enacted with a discriminatory purpose and that the law has a disparate impact on Latinx persons.” The government failed to show it “would have been enacted absent racial animus.””