Last Friday Judge L. Phillips Runyon III dismissed trespassing charges against Ramirez and seven other illegal aliens. The illegal aliens, from Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, were charged with trespass after traffic stops when they produced fake identification and admitted they were in the country illegally.

"The criminal trespass charges against the defendants are unconstitutional attempts to regulate in the area of enforcement of immigration violations, an area where Congress must be deemed to have regulated with such civil sanctions and criminal penalties as it feels are sufficient," Jaffrey District Court Judge L. Phillips Runyon III ruled.

[. . .]

"The current charges clearly conflict with the comprehensive menu of federal immigration offenses, sanctions and penalties by attempting to add a new one to them," Runyon wrote.

He said federal law has a mechanism to let local officers assist in enforcing immigration law.

"This role for local law enforcement exists within the federal plan for enforcing immigration violations, which is further indication that Congress intended to preclude any local efforts which are unauthorized or based on other than federal law," he said.

From California Yankee.