What are Miranda rights? What does it mean that a court has ruled that they should not be offered to migrants?

Facing a criminal or civil lawsuit will make all the difference when a migrant learns whether or not he or she is protected by Miranda Rights.

This follows the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision that “a split ruling dismissed the case of a Mexican immigrant who claimed he was not warned during his arrest that his initial statements could be used against him at trial.” used. .” of deportation for illegal stay in the United States,” Univisión published.

Three judges of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit indicated that Miranda rights do not apply to undocumented immigrants because they are arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on civil, not criminal, arrest warrants , La Prensa Hispana agreed.

The last word of the aforementioned Court, reported by Univisión on Thursday, November 23, 2023, opens the controversy.

What are Miranda rights?

On the site lawvocate.com they explain that “in 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Miranda vs. Arizona. In it, he stated that when a person is detained by police, he or she must be informed of the rights granted to him or her by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution before questioning. These rights are known as the Miranda rights.”

What is the Miranda Warning?

As a result of the Miranda case: “Detainees must be informed of four things before being interrogated:

1. You have the right to remain silent.

2. Anything you say can and will be used against you in court.

3. You have the right to a lawyer.

4. If you cannot afford a lawyer, the court will appoint one for you.’

The above are the Miranda rights.

What is the immigration plan that would legalize more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States?

What the Court analyzed about the rights of migrants

Miranda rights “are recited by police officers during a criminal arrest, regardless of whether there is a court order, but in the case of undocumented immigrants they will not apply,” La Prensa Hispana published.

On Univision, while reviewing the case of an immigrant originally from Mexico, he asked: Do undocumented immigrants have the right to have their rights read, the famous Miranda Warning, when a federal agent is about to place them in deportation? procedure after obtaining an injunction to stop them?

And he explained: “The answer is no, as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided by a vote of two to one in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of immigrant José María Zúñiga de la Cruz, who alleged that in his In this case, Miranda rights, including the right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination.”

The Court ruled last Friday, November 17, and “the majority of the panel rejected Zúñiga’s argument.”

“Undocumented immigrants are not protected by Miranda Rights because entering or remaining undocumented in the United States is a non-criminal civil offense,” Alex Gálvez, an immigration attorney based in Los Angeles, California, told Univision.

“For example, if the immigrant commits a crime and returns without permission after being deported and punished with years of permanence outside the country, then they read the Miranda warning because it is an arrest for a criminal,” Gálvez highlighted.

He also recalled that “Miranda protects the detainee so that he does not incriminate himself and remains silent without being punished.”

The panel justified the decision by warning that the Miranda Rules “do not have the authority to create new versions of themselves in the immigration context.

critical voice

For the aforementioned US network, Judge Salvador Mendoza, presented as “the dissenting voice of the ruling”, said that non-citizens (foreigners) “have the right to a fair trial under the Fifth Amendment, they have the right to be represented by a lawyer at their expense, they cannot be detained solely to verify their immigration status and they have the right to remain silent.”

Mendoza expanded that “Although the Miranda Law only applies to criminal proceedings, there is no reason not to inform foreigners of their rights.noting that in a previous case, this court had upheld a court order requiring immigration agents to inform non-citizens of their right to seek political asylum and their right to legal representation.”

Judge Daniel Bress noted that “there is no clear legal basis for ordering immigration agents to read the Miranda warnings or imposing rules with exclusionary consequences.”

Immigrants in Florida: These are the precautions against law SB 1718 proposed by the League of United Latin American Citizens

Recommendations for immigrants

After what happened in court, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reiterates that undocumented immigrants have rights in the United States.

In the event of public arrest, the civil rights group through Univision recommends the following:

According to La Prensa Hispana, the controversial case could still reach the Supreme Court now, if the defense team of José María Zúñiga de la Cruz, who had tried to prevent a deportation, were to take it into consideration because they had not read it. his Miranda rights when he was arrested by ICE.

(JO)