Immigration

Bryan Gonzalez (r) graduates from the Border Patrol Academy (Image courtesy Bryan Gonzalez via ACLU-NM)

Agent Fired for Legalization Views Sues Border Patrol

Can the Border Patrol fire an agent for saying he supports drug legalization? The federal courts will decide.

Mexico Massacre: How the Drug War is Pushing Cartels Into Human Trafficking

Drug traffickers are increasingly diversifying their illicit activities and targeting more than just rival criminal gangs.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) photo

Drug Offenses 1/3 of US Criminal Deportations, DHS Says

The leading cause of deportation under the US government's criminal alien removal program is drug offenses, the Department of Homeland Security reports. Anything from being a cocaine kingpin to smoking a joint can get you deported.

municipal building, San Fernando, Tamaulipas

Mexico Drug War Update

The discovery of the bodies of 72 people, probably Central American immigrants, on a farm not far from the US border, is the latest gruesome "top that" moment in Mexico's unending prohibition-related violence.

military drone planes

Congress Approves $600 Million for More Cops, Drones on Mexico Border [UPDATED]

Congress has just okayed spending $600 million for more drones, more ICE, more Border Patrol, more FBI, more DEA, more BATF, and more to "secure the border."

Court bars deportation over drugs

Mexico's Mounting Drug Trade

Smugglers Innovate as Border Tightens

Almost Any Drug Offense Can Keep You from Becoming a Citizen or Getting a Green Card

Yasha Spector of drugpolicycases.com has joined us in the Speakeasy with a discussion of the intersection of immigration law and drug law. As Spector, who works in immigration law, explains in some detail:

[P]retty much every drug offense is sufficient to permanently bar getting a green card or obtaining U.S. citizenship.

There are exceptions that the government can make in limited circumstances, but they are limited, and many more cases carry the likelihood of automatic deportation -- no judicial exceptions. Plea bargaining might help one avoid a prison sentence, but it doesn't help with the immigration problems. There was a little good news in this area courtesy the Supreme Court in 2006. But there is still little to be done in most cases, and people are being deported who for all intents and purposes have never lived in any other country than here.

Immigration and Drug Law: A Dangerous Intersection

If one had to identify two areas of jurisprudence where Constitution often doesnât seem to apply, the first one would probably be anything related to controlled substances. And, the second?

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