News / Human Rights

US deportations tearing families apart: Human Rights Watch

Wednesday, 17 June 2015 4:10 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 17 June 2015 4:11 PM ]

US immigration reform activists lobby in front of the US Congress. (AFP photo)

Thousands of families in the United States have been torn apart in recent years by detention and deportation for minor drug offenses because of draconian US drug laws, according to a report by an international human rights group.

Disproportionately harsh laws and policies relating to drug offenses can lead to deportation for lawful permanent residents and unauthorized immigrants alike who have strong family ties in the US, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

Deportations after convictions for drug possession increased 43 percent from 2007 to 2012, according to US government data obtained by Human Rights Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The 93-page report titled, “A Price Too High: US Families Torn Apart by Deportations for Drug Offenses,” documents show the US regularly places legal residents and other immigrants into deportation proceedings for drug offenses that are often decades old or so minor they resulted in little or no prison time.

“Even as many US states are legalizing and decriminalizing some drugs, or reducing sentences for drug offenses, federal immigration policy too often imposes exile for the same offenses,” said Grace Meng, senior US researcher at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report.

“Americans believe the punishment should fit the crime, but that is not what is happening to immigrants convicted of what are often relatively minor drug offenses.”

The report is based on more than 130 interviews by the New York-based human rights group with affected immigrants, families, attorneys, and law enforcement officials, as well as new data obtained from federal immigration agencies.

“The Obama administration has explicitly recognized the many failures of the US criminal justice system, and particularly its disproportionate impact on minority and poor communities,” Human Rights Watch said.

“But by designating all immigrants convicted in that system as dangerous criminals, the administration is perpetuating these failures and devastating many of the same communities.”

AHT/AGB

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