Vol. 74/No. 26      July 12, 2010

The case is based on a lawsuit filed on behalf of José Angel Carachuri-Rosendo, a permanent resident living in the United States since 1983. He was deported to Mexico after being convicted of possessing a single tablet of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax without a prescription.

A Texas judge sentenced him in 2005 to 10 days in jail. A year earlier he was convicted of possessing two ounces of marijuana, receiving a 20-day sentence.

Both these “crimes” are misdemeanors under state law. But federal authorities said according to federal immigration law a second drug offense counted as an “aggravated felony.” As a result Carachuri-Rosendo was automatically deported, leaving behind his wife, four children, and other family members, all of whom are U.S. citizens.

“We do not usually think of a 10-day sentence for the unauthorized possession of a trivial amount of a prescription drug as an ‘aggravated felony,’” wrote Justice John Paul Stevens in the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision. Stevens said that instead of being automatically deported Carachuri-Rosendo should have been allowed to plead his case before an immigrant court judge.

The decision applies for immigrants with government-approved papers. Undocumented workers, however, would still face virtually automatic deportation, said Manuel Vargas, senior counsel for the Immigrant Defense Project.

Many immigrant workers living in the United States have had to confront what Carachuri-Rosendo faced. An important example on how to fight back against this is the case of Róger Calero, who was the Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president in 2008.

In December 2002, while returning from a reporting trip to Cuba and Mexico for the Militant newspaper, Calero was arrested and incarcerated by immigration authorities in Houston. The government immediately began proceedings to deport him to his native Nicaragua, based on a minor plea-bargain conviction 15 years earlier, when he was in high school, for selling an ounce of marijuana to an undercover cop. Calero has had a green card since 1990 when immigration authorities waived the conviction.

A broad-based defense committee was formed to back Calero’s fight. In response to many letters of protest, immigration officials released Calero from its detention center in Houston 10 days after his arrest. He then began a nationwide speaking tour to publicize the case.

Trade unionists, immigrant rights fighters, and many others were won to support this anti-deportation fight. In response, immigration authorities five months later backed down, dropping the case.  
 
 
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