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
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
