Illegal Reentry Prosecution Doesn’t Violate Due Process

US v. Sanchez-Garcia: This was a consolidated appeal for six defendants charged in the Middle District of North Carolina with illegal reentry. All filed motions to dismiss arguing that the illegal reentry statute, 18 U.S.C. §1326, was unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause due to the racially discriminatory purpose for its initial enactment. After hearing from expert witnesses on the matter, the district court denied the various motions to dismiss.

On appeal, the Fourth Circuit joined several other circuits in rejecting the Due Process claim. In doing so the court rejected the defendants’ argument that any racially discriminatory motive involved in passage of the 1929 predecessor to §1326 tainted the enactment of the modern statute in 1952. Specifically, the court concluded that the 1952 act was not simply a recodification of the original 1929 statute.