Pubdate: Wed, 04 Oct 2006 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2006 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.mercurynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Author: David G. Savage, LA Times Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) JUSTICES WEIGH DEPORTATION FOR POSSESSING ILLEGAL DRUGS WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court debated Tuesday whether thousands of longtime legal immigrants in the United States, including business owners and military veterans, must be deported if they have been convicted of drug possession. At issue is how to interpret a stiff 10-year federal law which demands deportation for legal immigrants who commit "aggravated felonies." Despite the law's focus on expelling felons and drug traffickers, the government in recent years has insisted on deporting some immigrants who pleaded guilty to possessing drugs, sometimes just small amounts of marijuana. Although those crimes are considered minor matters under federal law, in some states they are classified as felonies. Government attorneys in those states contend that the federal deportation law can be used in those cases. Several justices voiced doubt about this approach during the oral argument Tuesday. "Isn't that very strange that Congress would have wanted a reading of the statute that would turn its definition of a misdemeanor crime into an aggravated felony for purposes of the immigration laws?" asked Justice David Souter. Defending the government's approach, Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler said the law as Congress wrote it "looks to state law." If a drug crime is a felony under state law, it is a felony that leads to deportation under federal law, he said. Chief Justice John Roberts told the government's attorney, "It must give you pause that your analysis of a term 'drug trafficking' offense . . . leads to the conclusion that simple possession equates with drug trafficking." The case before the court illustrates the issue. Jose Lopez came to this country from Mexico in 1985 and became a lawful resident. In 1997, he was married and the father of two children, and owned a taco stand and grocery store in Sioux Falls, S.D., when he admitted that he told someone how to obtain cocaine. This would be a misdemeanor under federal law, but it was a felony under South Dakota law resulting in up to five years in prison. Lopez served 15 months in prison and was released. Federal authorities then took him into custody, and he was deported to Mexico for his crime, even though he was not convicted of buying or selling the drug. Immigrants-rights groups urged the Supreme Court to limit deportation under the federal law only to those who are drug traffickers. "Effectively, what the government is arguing is that states can banish non-citizens and can do so by enacting drug laws deciding to make a simple possession offense a felony," Robert Long, an attorney for Lopez, told the justices. "It's highly unlikely Congress would have left that determination to the states." There is no doubt, however, that Congress wanted to make it easier to deport immigrants who committed serious crimes in the United States. Once deemed guilty of an "aggravated felony," such as drug trafficking, these legal immigrants must be deported, under the terms of the 1996 law. That, in turn, has focused attention on what drug crimes are deemed as felonies. The government said four states -- Florida, Nevada, North Dakota and Oregon -- make it a felony to possess a small amount of marijuana. In briefs to the court, immigrants-rights groups cited the example of legal immigrants who are gulf war veterans, owners of successful restaurants and established business owners who faced deportation because they have a state drug conviction on their records. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman