Encouraging Illegal Immigration Is Protected Speech, Court Says

A federal law that bars Americans from encouraging or inducing a foreigner to stay in the U.S. illegally violates the First Amendment’s protections of free speech, an appeals court ruled Dec. 4.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of California immigrant counselor Evelyn Sineneng-Smith on the grounds that she was prosecuted under a law that the judges called “unconstitutionally overbroad.”

The statute permits authorities to prosecute anyone who “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States,” if that person knew the alien’s presence in the U.S. was illegal. The court ...