Immigration Bill Affects Real and Imagined Drug Offenders

US Capitol, Senate side

An amendment to the Senate immigration reform bill by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) would affect real and imagined drug offenders. SA 1570, amendment to S. 744 (and the same as Grassley’s SA 1299) calls for the deportation of immigrant gang members and barring them from becoming legalized immigrants.

Among the types of crimes included are felony drug offenses. But according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), the amendment doesn’t require proof, it creates guilt by association, and there’s no process for challenging evidence used under the amendment in a proceeding.

The ILRC alert includes some examples of people caught up in the Kafkaesque situation these kinds of laws have created:

 Ronny (not his real name), a 35-year old green card holder, was brought to the United States at the age of 2. Ruben’s parents are US citizens and he is engaged to a US citizen. In 2003, Ronny was arrested for a marijuana sale in Illinois. He pled guilty to this charge and received a sentence of 18 days in jail and 2 years of probation, which he successfully completed. This was Ronny’s last criminal offense. In July of 2012, immigration officers, in a joint operation with local authorities in DuPage County, Illinois, arrived at Ronny’s home to arrest him and put him in deportation proceedings. Ronny discovered he was on a gang list, compiled by DuPage law enforcement. Ronny has never been in a gang, nor engaged in any gang-related activities, though he did grow up in a neighborhood where gang activity was prevalent and had friends who were associated with gangs. Ronny could be considered a gang member and a danger to society.

Julia (not her real name) lives in California. She has applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Although Julia has never been involved with a gang, she has friends who were gang members and was arrested twice as a juvenile for offenses that were dismissed by the prosecutor. It is likely that Julia would be considered an active gang member and a danger to the community.

Call (888) 891-3271 for the Congressional Switchboard and ask to speak to each of your two Senators, in turn. Also, tweet your Senator with #NOonGrassley1570. Visit http://www.govsm.com/w/Senate to find Twitter information for US Senators.

Article republished from Stop the Drug War under Creative Commons Licensing