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.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman