Working a state-legal marijuana dispensary is grounds to disclaim a authorized resident’s software for U.S. citizenship, a federal appellate court docket dominated earlier this month.
The ninth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals concluded that Maria Elena Reimers’ software for naturalization could possibly be denied as a result of she operates a licensed marijuana enterprise in Washington state. Whereas her enterprise is authorized underneath Washington regulation, marijuana stays unlawful underneath the federal Managed Substances Act (CSA).
The court docket affirmed that violating the CSA “categorically precludes her from qualifying for naturalization” because it demonstrates a scarcity of “good ethical character.” The ruling rejected Reimers’ declare that she is handled in a different way than marijuana enterprise house owners who’re U.S. residents. Washington has licensed virtually 500 marijuana dispensaries since legalizing leisure gross sales in 2012.
Reimers has no legal report, but in a letter asserting the denial of her naturalization software, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) described her as an “illicit trafficker of a managed substance.”
“Now we have a authorized enterprise and pay taxes, tons of taxes to the federal government. And but they are saying I am not morally match to be a citizen,” Reimers tells Cause.
Reimers immigrated legally to the U.S. from El Salvador in 2004 along with her now-husband Rick, who was born in america. Rick began Cannarail Station, a leisure dispensary in Ephrata, Washington, in 2014. Reimers submitted her naturalization software in Might 2017, totally disclosing her involvement with the enterprise.
After her preliminary interview in August 2017, Reimers says she handed the naturalization check and was scheduled for an oath ceremony. Then USCIS modified her software to pending. In June 2018, she appeared for a second interview, the place immigration officers extensively questioned her concerning the enterprise. Reimers testified truthfully that she was a co-owner and worker of Cannarail Station.
In July 2018, Reimers obtained a denial letter from USCIS. In Might 2019 she had an attraction listening to with USCIS, however a yr later they reaffirmed the choice. Reimers filed a grievance within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Jap District of Washington in December 2020, which granted abstract judgment to USCIS in February 2022 solely on the idea of her marijuana enterprise. She appealed the choice to the ninth Circuit, which heard the case in April 2023.
Her legal professional, Alycia Moss, tells Cause, “She’s certified in each different method. The one denial cause was based mostly on lack of ‘good ethical character.'”
Nonetheless, the ninth Circuit, citing Hussein v. Barrett (2016), affirmed that violating the CSA is “a per se bar to naturalization.” Particular violations of U.S. naturalization regulation routinely stop an applicant from having “good ethical character.” The court docket maintained that promoting marijuana in violation of the CSA renders an applicant routinely ineligible for naturalization. In circumstances the place the applicant dedicated crimes that weren’t enumerated underneath naturalization regulation, courts could contemplate “all proof related to the applicant’s character.” In Reimers’ case, her authorized marijuana enterprise prevents the court docket from contemplating any of her different {qualifications}.
Since 2013, the Division of Justice has allowed leisure marijuana companies to function with out concern of prosecution as long as they observe state laws. Reimers and her husband say their enterprise has totally complied with Washington regulation they usually have by no means run into any points with the authorities. The ninth Circuit’s ruling, nevertheless, affirms that USCIS can nonetheless punish potential residents even when they have not been prosecuted for a federal marijuana offense.
Moss contends that there are two constitutional questions in Reimers’ case. The primary is that the federal authorities’s software of the CSA violates the Equal Safety Clause. The prohibition on marijuana applies to each residents and noncitizens, however Reimers is punished for her enterprise whereas residents aren’t.
Nonetheless, the court docket dominated that Reimers can’t argue she is handled in a different way than citizen marijuana enterprise house owners as a result of “Ms. Reimers isn’t a citizen and, furthermore, the naturalization statutes don’t apply to residents.” Within the ninth Circuit’s opinion, the related equal safety argument isn’t whether or not the CSA was utilized equally amongst marijuana enterprise house owners, however whether or not the naturalization legal guidelines have been utilized equally to noncitizens. For the equal safety argument to carry, she should present that USCIS “handled equally located people—different non-citizen marijuana enterprise house owners—in a different way underneath the naturalization statutes.”
Moss says that discovering residents who have been naturalized regardless of working marijuana companies could be “troublesome, if not unattainable” as a result of “these people…could be topic to denaturalization.”
The opposite difficulty, Moss says, is that the present federal laws on hashish are a half-in, half-out system. For instance, the federal authorities permits marijuana companies to function with out interference, however they cannot take tax deductions for many enterprise bills and have problem banking. Many state-legal marijuana companies are allowed to rent armed safety and even off-duty police to face guard at stores, however might simply as simply be charged with utilizing a gun within the act of drug trafficking.
“We have had financial institution accounts closed as a result of we’re a marijuana enterprise. There’s one credit score union right here in our space that we are able to use, but it surely’s a two-hour drive.…It is simply been a nightmare,” Rick says.
After Moss introduced Reimers’ case to the U.S. District Courtroom for the Jap District of Washington in 2020, the court docket declined to offer a de novo listening to—a full evidentiary listening to the place the court docket would have reexamined the info of her case from scratch with out USCIS’ conclusions. The ninth Circuit affirmed the decrease court docket’s ruling and once more denied Reimers a full evidentiary listening to. Now, Moss says they plan to request an en banc listening to from the ninth Circuit, which might contain 11 judges as an alternative of the standard three. Moss hopes {that a} new listening to would mandate a de novo listening to and supply one other alternative for the court docket to rethink their constitutional objections.
“When the federal authorities goes to permit a sure sector of the nation to do one thing that may be very clearly federally unlawful and never implement it, however then implement it in different areas, like in tax regulation, or immigration, I believe we create essentially the most patently unfair system,” says Moss. “Both the federal authorities modifications the regulation or the federal authorities must persistently function its legal guidelines.”
If Reimers fails on attraction, she must discover different choices to achieve citizenship. The Immigration and Naturalization Act requires candidates who’re married to U.S. residents to reveal “good ethical character” for the three years previous their software, which means Reimers must distance herself from her enterprise for no less than three years to reveal “reformation of character” earlier than reapplying.
“We have been suggested that we might promote the enterprise and perhaps I might apply later…however is it truthful?” Reimers says. “We will divorce…however then he can’t even give me youngster help as a result of I [would] be taking cash from him that he is making out of the marijuana enterprise, after which I couldn’t apply for my citizenship.”
Reimers has not left the nation since arriving in 2004 out of concern that border authorities would flag her inexperienced card for potential revocation upon reentry because of her enterprise being in violation of federal regulation. Given the problems along with her naturalization software, she now fears that she is likely to be denied for a inexperienced card renewal.
“I used to be working away from all of the crime that was overtaking my nation.…I hear this was the land of alternative, the place desires can come true,” Reimers says. “The dream isn’t as they are saying.…All of this mess, simply because I needed to have a greater life, to be protected, and to offer for my household.”
