Half A Million People Have Been Deported For Drugs Since 2002, Including Tens Of Thousands For Marijuana Possession Alone, New Report Shows

A new report sheds light on the effects of federal drug prohibition on immigrants to the United States, showing that thousands of people are deported annually for drug offenses “that in many cases no longer exist under state laws, harming and separating immigrant families.”

Between 2002 and 2020, the report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) found, half a million people were expelled from the U.S. whose most serious offense was a drug charge. Of those, the analysis shows that at least 156,000 peoples’ most serious charges was for simple drug use or possession, including more than 47,000 people for marijuana use or possession.

The 97-page report, “‘Disrupt and Vilify’: The War on Immigrants Inside the US War on Drugs,” emphasizes what it calls the country’s failure to update its immigration and drug laws despite decades of state-level reform and a cultural shift away from punitive drug policies.

“Not a single immigration consequence tied to drugs has been curtailed since they were expanded under the administration of US President Ronald Reagan in 1988,” the document, released on Monday, says. “The failure to reform federal immigration law means even more people have been deported.”

Between 2002 and 2012—when voters began approving the nation’s first state-level recreational marijuana laws—about 260,000 people were deported whose most serious offense was drug related, with use or possession the most common charges. “This amounted to one of every four deportations of immigrants with a criminal conviction during that time period,” says the new report.

Between 2013 and 2020, it continues, “an additional 240,000 people have been deported whose most serious offense was for drugs, amounting to about one of every five deportations of immigrants with a criminal conviction.”

“Drug reform policies are not inclusive and equitable unless they address harms to immigrants, who remain in the crosshairs of what in many respects has seemed like a war on immigrants within the United States’ so-called ‘war on drugs,’” authors wrote. “This ongoing disregard for the human rights and dignity of immigrants forces thousands of people into battles that often never end.”

One person whose story is highlighted in the new report, Natalie Burke, had her marijuana-related charges from 2003 pardoned by the governor of Arizona but is still facing deportation. Burke, who is Black and from Jamaica, has since earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees and sent her son off to college, the report says.

“Even with a hard-won gubernatorial pardon, and even in a state where marijuana is now legal, ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is still trying to deport Natalie,” it notes.

Burke’s case isn’t an exception, it adds, explaining that the features of her case are “routine” in the country: “a longstanding US resident with a drug offense on their record subjected to years of litigation, prolonged detention, and the constant threat of deportation and a bar on ever returning to the US.”

Among the changes called for by HRW and DPA are giving more discretion to federal immigration judges to make individualized decisions about deportation cases. States should also ensure that drug reforms apply not just to citizens but noncitizens, as well, the groups said.

“The uniquely American combination of the drug war and deportation machine work hand in hand to target, exclude, and punish noncitizens for minor offenses—or in some states legal activity—such as marijuana possession,” Maritza Perez Medina, director of federal affairs for DPA, said in a statement. “This report underscores that punitive federal drug laws separate families, destabilize communities, and terrorize noncitizens, all while overdose deaths have risen and drugs have become more potent and available.”

“It’s imperative that our government revises federal law to match current state-based drug policy reforms to end and prevent the immense human suffering being inflicted in the name of the drug war,” Perez Medina added.

As part of the new report, HRW and DPA interviewed 42 people, including immigrants, family members and attorneys. It also reviewed nearly two decades of federal data.

“I’m not able to live and operate without fear because I’m not a citizen,” said one interviewee, a lawful permanent resident in California who was convicted for possessing marijuana and paraphernalia. “I’ve lived here for more than 20 years now. This is my home. I have children here. I want to be a citizen, and I’m making every effort to do that. But it seems like that’s not going to be possible.”

Vicki Gaubeca, associate U.S. director for immigration and border policy at HRW asked, “Why should parents or grandparents be deported away from children in their care for decades-old drug offenses, including offenses that would be legal today?”

“If drug conduct is not a crime under state law, it should not make someone deportable,” she said in a press release about the new report.

Congress should update immigration law to ensure people aren’t subject to “one-size-fits-all” deportations, the groups said, and establish a statute of limitations on deportations “so people can move beyond old offenses and get on with their lives.”

The drug war’s racial disparities are also present among noncitizens, the report notes.

“Even within the category of non-citizens, Black immigrants are disproportionately impacted,” the groups said. “More than one out of every five noncitizens facing deportation on criminal grounds before US immigration courts is Black. Black immigrants are more likely to be held in detention longer and are less likely to be granted release.”

“Current and past administrations have recognized the disproportionate impact of harshly punitive drug policies on Black and Brown communities,” said Gaubeca at HRW. “But through their immigration policies, Congress and the executive branch are perpetuating these harms and devastating many of the same communities.”

The new HRW–DPA report comes on the heels of a separate report by Columbia University researchers finding that states that legalize marijuana see a “moderate relative decrease” in immigrant deportation rates compared to states where the drug remains illegal, as well as a slight decrease in overall cannabis-related arrests.

Researchers didn’t reach any specific conclusion about the seeming connection between state-level legalization and decreased deportations. But it is the case that all 11 so-called sanctuary states for immigrants, where it is generally the policy to discourage reporting immigrants to federal authorities, are also states that have legalized cannabis for adult use.

Further, legalization broadly leads to decreased arrests for cannabis-related offenses, so it’s likely fewer immigrants would be caught up in marijuana criminalization in the first place, regardless of the potential referral to federal agencies.

The Columbia study also noted that state-level legalization could risk giving immigrants a false sense of security.

“Because cannabis remains illegal at the federal level,” the study said, “cannabis infractions, even for minor or civil offenses, and otherwise ‘legal’ cannabis-related conduct, can have severe repercussions for people who are not US citizens, including temporary or permanent residents, dreamers and those granted asylum.”

“Under federal policy, a conviction, charge, or admission of simple cannabis possession is considered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as sufficient grounds for status ineligibility, arrest, detention, or deportation, as is employment in the cannabis industry,” it says.

There have been efforts by members of Congress to address that issue. For example, in 2022, a House spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) included a section that would have prevented the agency from using any federal funding to deny admission to, or deport, immigrants who’ve used or possessed marijuana.

Similar language also advanced through the appropriations process in 2021, but it was not included in the final package following bicameral negotiations. Nor was the 2022 version.

Advocates have also pressured the Biden administration to extend presidential cannabis possession pardons to the immigrant community. But immigrants have not been included in either of the last two clemency rounds.

Under legislation introduced in 2021, an immigrant’s admission to prior marijuana use could no longer be used to deny them U.S. citizenship. It was not enacted, however.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a person who currently admits to using cannabis—even in compliance with state law—is morally unfit for citizenship. The agency clarified that position in a 2019 memo, adding that employment in a state-legal marijuana market is another factor that could impact a person’s immigration status.

In 2019, a coalition of 10 senators sent a letter to the head of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security calling for a rule change to permit people working in state-legal markets to gain citizenship.

The letter echoes points made in a separate message sent by a bipartisan group of 43 House members earlier that year. In that letter, the group called the USCIS guidance “fatally flawed, as it provides no cogent basis for the agency’s apparent conclusion that lawful employment in a state-licensed industry could be treated as a negative factor in establishing good moral character and places a negative burden upon the individuals against a non-existent discretionary element.”

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