One of President Donald Trump‘s recent appointees to a federal judgeship issued an order recommending a stronger punishment for an illegal immigrant criminal in order to “afford adequate deterrence.”
Judge Joshua Divine, Trump’s nominee to the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri, wrote on Friday that Lesman Rivera-Vasquez, who pleaded guilty to possessing ammunition while illegally in the United States, deserves a harsher sentence than the one recommended.
The illegal immigrant asked to be sentenced to time served.
Divine recommended a harsher sentence, such as deportation, “because the Federal Government, from 2021 through 2024, did not deter illegal immigration.”
“It did the opposite,” Divine’s order says. “Courts must impose sentences high enough ‘to afford adequate deterrence.’”
The ruling shows the importance of nominating constitutionalist judges, said Hans Von Spakovsky, an election-integrity expert at The Heritage Foundation.
“What a refreshing change to have a federal judge like Josh Devine actually enforcing federal immigration law in this case, instead of acting like a rogue judge intent on obstructing enforcement, which is happening all over the country with other judges,” Von Spakovsky told The Daily Signal.
“If other federal judges started doing their jobs and started imposing sentences on illegal aliens high enough to ensure deterrence, the American public would benefit from less crime, less public costs, and decreased illegal immigration,” he said, adding:
This decision emphasizes the importance of finding principled individuals to be federal judges.
Divine’s order favoring Trump’s views on the issue is a departure from the many attempts to overrule or enjoin Trump’s executive orders by federal judges appointed by Democrat presidents.
Before Trump nominated Divine to a life-tenure federal judgeship, he served as Missouri’s solicitor general. His resume also includes clerking for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, working as general counsel for Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and being an involved member of the conservative Federalist Society.
Divine wrote that because the Biden administration did not enforce immigration laws, courts may need to impose higher sentences now to offset the negative effect of past decisions.
“The Court finds it necessary to assess the Federal Government’s actions—and inactions—around illegal immigration during the Biden administration because the Court is required to impose a sentence high enough to ensure adequate deterrence,” Divine wrote. “That means deterrence not only for Rivera-Vasquez, but also for all illegal immigrants, including ones who entered the country between 2021 and 2024.”
Divine ordered attorneys for the defendant, Rivera-Vasquez, and the U.S. government to submit briefs on whether a longer sentence, or rapid deportation, better achieves deterrence, noting that prior federal inaction had “drastically decreased” respect for immigration laws.
“A baseline assumption is that the law will be enforced by the Executive Branch,” Divine wrote. “But when the governing administration chooses not to enforce the law, actively breaks the law, or otherwise adopts policies that encourage lawbreaking—as the Federal Government did from 2021 through 2024—the inherent deterrent value of the law decreases.”
