Immigrants: Avoid Legal Marijuana Jobs
By: Terry Schwadron
Tags: Immigrants, Justice, Federal, Marijuana, White House

Terry H. Schwadron

April 27, 2019

Stephen Miller, the presidential adviser, must stay awake all night thinking up new ways to hector immigrants, from family separations to eliminating asylum.

Still, this week’s White House proposal is a head-scratcher.

Immigrants who use marijuana or who work in the cannabis industry can be denied citizenship, even if they are doing so in states where it is legal, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decided (coincidentally just before the 4/20 annual marijuana celebration). The federal government, of course, does not recognize marijuana trafficking, even in small recreational amounts, as legal.

On its face, the argument here seems to that marijuana usage represents a legal gray area that penalizes would-be citizens because they have broken a federal law. Recreational marijuana use is legal in 10 states and decriminalized in 14 more.

“The policy guidance . . . clarifies that an applicant who is involved in certain marijuana-related activities may lack good moral character if found to have violated federal law, even if such activity has been decriminalized under applicable state laws,” the decision read.

Earlier this month, Democratic Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wrote to U.S. Atty. Gen. William P. Barr asking him to clarify and adjust policy that threatens permanent residents’ path to citizenship if they have worked in the marijuana industry. Colorado was one of the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana use, in 2012. The expansion of marijuana use beyond prescribed medical purposes has cultivated a thriving retail cannabis industry in the state.

Hancock explained that “This week, I met with two legal immigrants — one from Lithuania, another from El Salvador — who have lived here for more than two decades. They have graduated from our schools. They have paid their taxes. They are working to achieve the American dream and complying with the processes in place to become a part of our great society, but were denied naturalization solely because of their cannabis industry employment. . .

“Denver understands the need for federal laws and regulations regarding citizenship and immigration, but we are seeing the heartbreaking effects that those federal laws and regulations are having on our residents. However, under current federal policy, lawful, permanent residents like the Denver residents I have met with are being denied naturalization and may lose their legal status based on their lawful employment in the cannabis industry.”

So is this new rule tightening on behalf of stronger drug policy or part of the continuing campaign o trash immigrants?

Michael Collins, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, sees it as the latter. “Taking a step back, this has nothing to do with cannabis — this has to do with this administration never passing up an opportunity to prosecute immigrant communities,” Collins said. “They see cannabis as a ripe opportunity for persecuting these individuals.” The war on drugs has disproportionately hurt communities of color, and this is just another example of that, he said.

“The Trump administration has used the war on drugs since the beginning to go after migrant populations,” Collins added, pointing to President Trump’s rationale that a border wall would keep drugs out of the country and his blaming of migrants for the opioid epidemic.

Immigration service spokeswoman spokeswoman Jessica Collins said the agency is “required to adjudicate cases based on federal law. Individuals who commit federal controlled substance violations face potential immigration consequences under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which applies to all foreign nationals regardless of the state or jurisdiction in which they reside.”

During the Obama administration, the federal government eased up on enforcing federal laws against marijuana, allowing states to chart their own paths on the issue. In January, 2018, then Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions argued the opposite.

Immigration lawyers have advised people to avoid work in the marijuana industry until the federal law changes.

It is pretty amazing to see what forgoing sleep to think up new immigration angles can produce.

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