US Tears Families Apart Deporting Immigrants for Drug Offenses

The US policy of deporting non-citizens with drug convictions has teared thousands of families apart in recent years, a watchdog said in a report on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, in a 93-page paper, that during a five-year period, starting in 2007, some 266,000 individuals, including both legal permanent residents and unauthorized immigrants, were deported from the US for drug-related offenses, ignoring the devastating emotional and financial consequences for their families.

The watchdog emphasized a 43-percent increase in deportations after convictions for drug possession (almost 20,000 of deported in 2012) and the fact that over 34,000 non-citizens were deported from the country during the five-year period for marijuana possession.

The report called on President Barack Obama's administration to stop pursuing the deportation strategy, categorically assuming any person with a criminal conviction represents a threat to public safety.

“By designating all immigrants convicted in that system as dangerous criminals, the administration is perpetuating these failures and devastating many of the [minority and poor] communities,” Grace Meng, the author of the report, said.

HRW pointed out that while many US states are decriminalizing some drugs, federal immigration policy imposes exile for the same offenses.