Appeals Court Rules That Illegal Immigrants Don’t Have Second Amendment Protections
Mark Chesnut -
May 12, 2026
A federal appeals court has ruled that the federal government can pursue illegal gun possession charges against a Mexican immigrant living in the country illegally, nixing the idea that illegal aliens have the same Second Amendment rights as American citizens.
Using the Bruen standard, on May 5, a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that 8 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A), which bans illegals from possessing firearms, fits within the history and tradition of this nation’s regulation of firearms rooted in English law and because it was enacted in the context of modern societal concerns about security risks posed immigrants living in this country without permission.
The ruling revolved around a case involving the prosecution of Alberto Rebollar Osorio, a Mexican citizen who had been living in the U.S. illegally for 11 years when he was taken into custody during a traffic stop in Maine. He had a firearm in his vehicle and was subsequently indicted on a charge of possessing a firearm as an “alien illegally or unlawfully in the United States.”
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/appeals-court-illegal-immigrant-gun-rights/
