LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 As thousands of\u00a0children were taken from their parents\u00a0at the southern border during a Trump administration crackdown on illegal crossings, a federal public defender in San Diego set out to find new strategies to go after the longstanding deportation law fueling the family separations.
\nThe resulting legal defense that Kara Hartzler would help draft in the coming years \u2014 work that continued even after a judge halted the general practice at the U.S.-Mexico border in June 2018 \u2014 was unprecedented.
\nIt exposed Section 1326 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which makes it a crime to unlawfully return to the U.S. after deportation, removal or denied admission, as racist and a violation of equal protection rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
\nAnd it became the legal framework for a never-before-seen\u00a0ruling in August 2021 by Nevada U.S. District Judge Miranda Du. She struck down the law as unconstitutional and discriminatory against Latinos when she dismissed an illegal reentry charge against Mexican immigrant Gustavo Carrillo Lopez, though she didn\u2019t block enforcement and prosecutions haven\u2019t stopped as the government appeals the case
\nDu\u2019s 43-page ruling cited much of Hartzler\u2019s legal defense. \u201cThe record before the Court reflects that at no point has Congress confronted the racist, nativist roots of Section 1326,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n