Report shows how the US drug war and deportation machine are destroying lives

Thousands of people in the United States are deported each year for past drug offenses, even though those offenses are often no longer crimes due to changing state drug laws, according to a report released Monday.

The 91-page report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) entitled
Disrupt and Denigrate: The War on Immigrants – Insights into the US War on Drugs– highlights the experiences of people who were deported years or even decades after committing drug-related crimes.

One of those immigrants, Natalie Burke of Jamaica, was convicted of cannabis-related offenses in 2003 but was pardoned last August by Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs. Hobbs acted on the unanimous recommendation of a state pardons and pardons board, which concluded that Burke was a victim of domestic violence and was “enticed” into dealing marijuana.

However, according to the report:

She can’t move on with her life because the US immigration authorities are trying to deport her, even though marijuana is now legal in Arizona and she has been pardoned…

Natalie explained that one day in 2009, her parole officer asked her to come to the Tucson office to fill out some paperwork. Her son, who was in fifth grade at the time, was waiting for her outside in the parking lot. Natalie never returned to him that day. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took her directly to an immigration detention center because her conviction made her deportable from the United States.

“Despite a hard-fought pardon from the governor, and in a state where marijuana is now legal, ICE is still trying to deport Natalie,” the report continues. “She continues to fight back and is currently pursuing new legal arguments based on the pardon.”

Burke is far from alone. Analyzing data from 2002 to 2020, the report’s authors found that around 500,000 people were deported whose most serious offense was drug-related. More than 150,000 of those deportations were the result of convictions for drug use or possession, including 47,000 for marijuana – which is now legal for recreational or medicinal use in most U.S. states.

“America’s unique combination of drug war and deportation machinery works hand in hand to target, deport and punish noncitizens for minor offenses – or in some states, legal activities – such as marijuana possession,” said Maritza Perez Medina, director of DPA’s Federal Affairs Division, in a statement.

“This report underscores that punitive federal drug laws are separating families, destabilizing communities, and terrorizing non-citizens, while overdose deaths are rising and drugs are becoming more powerful and easily available,” she added. “It is imperative that the U.S. government revise federal laws to align with current state drug policy reforms to end and prevent the immense human suffering caused in the name of the drug war.”

The publication states: “Of all immigrants deported for crimes, those with drug offenses had lived in the United States the longest.”

This led to the deportation of immigrants who had lived in the United States since childhood and the separation of U.S. war veterans from their families.

The report’s authors interviewed several people who are at risk of deportation and who have become parents or even grandparents of U.S. citizens during their time in the country.

“I cannot live and act without fear because I am not a citizen,” a California resident convicted of possession of marijuana and paraphernalia said in the report. “I have lived here for more than 20 years now. This is my home. I have children here. I want to be a citizen and I am trying my best to make that happen. But it seems like that is not going to be possible.”

“Congress should reform immigration law to ensure that immigrants with criminal records, including drug offenses, are not subject to blanket deportation.”

Vicki Gaubeca, HRW’s immigration and border policy director, said: “Why should parents or grandparents be separated from their children because of drug offenses committed decades ago, even if those offenses were legal today? If drug offenses are not a crime under a state’s law, that should not result in someone being deported.”

The report also highlights cases of legal permanent residents employed in the states’ marijuana industry who are unable to obtain citizenship because they are deemed to have “lack of moral character” due to the ongoing criminalization of cannabis at the federal level. Immigrant women have also been sexually abused by correctional officers who knew their victims would soon be deported.

HRW and DPA demanded that “Congress should reform immigration law to ensure that immigrants with criminal records, including drug offenses, are not subject to blanket deportation.”

“Instead,” the authors argue, “immigration judges should be given the freedom to make individual decisions. As a first important step, Congress should establish a statute of limitations on deportations so that people can put old offenses behind them and move on with their lives.”