California's process of weeding out illegal marijuana activity threatens immigrants, advocates say

Immigrants could be caught in the crossfire if the federal government targets California's legal marijuana industry, Greater Los Angeles leaders warn.

More than a dozen politicians and immigrant rights advocates in Los Angeles County sent letters to state cannabis regulators at the end of 2017 expressing concern that the state's marijuana tracking procedures should be strengthened to keep legal pot from seeping into the black market.

In the letters, the advocates claimed that if California does not bolster procedures to “track and trace” marijuana, federal law enforcement will take matters into its own hands – and in the process, jeopardize the legal status of any non-U.S. citizens they find in the legal cannabis industry.

“California state agencies must adopt a strong track and trace program that will reduce

illegal cannabis activities,” one passage appearing in many of the letters reads. "Undocumented immigrants and permanent residents are in the middle of a disagreement between state and federal cannabis law that contradict each other. California having a strong track and trace system will decrease the likelihood of federal enforcement of federal cannabis laws.”

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Marijuana companies and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which oversees the state's track-and-trace system from cultivation to sale, say the state's system keeps tabs on each plant throughout its life and has the same aims as other states that have embraced the cannabis industry.

"Ultimately, California and other states that have legalized cannabis share the same goal with our respective track-and-trace systems: to record the inventory and movement of cannabis products through the commercial cannabis supply chain," said Rebecca Forée, a spokesperson for CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing, which is a part of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in an email to The Desert Sun.

But at the moment, marijuana and immigration are two pressure points in California's uneasy relationship with the Justice Department.

California legalized pot; the Trump Administration yanked the Cole Memo, the Obama-era policy protecting pro-pot states from federal intervention. California passed “sanctuary state” laws; the Trump Administration sued to block them.

Immigration advocates wonder if the federal government will take the opportunity to threaten both causes at the same time, using immigrants’ contact with the legal pot industry as a reason to stop them from becoming naturalized citizens, or even as cause for deportation.

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The Desert Sun obtained copies of 15 letters expressing concern about how cannabis regulations will impact immigrant communities, which were sent to the Bureau of Cannabis Control and other state agencies that regulate the legal marijuana industry in California. The letters are not identical to one another, but appear to borrow certain passages verbatim from the same unidentified source.

All of the letters except for two are dated before the agencies released final emergency regulations on Nov. 16, 2017. They were sent to regulators during a public comment period that followed the release.

The Desert Sun reached out to each of the 15 signers. Two of them, Councilmember Aide Castro of Lynwood and Mayor Chris Garcia or Cudahy, initially said they did not recall signing the letters, but later acknowledged that they had done so when sent copies of documents with their respective signatures. The California Latino Leadership Institute declined comment for this story. The remaining organizations did not respond to request for comment.

Christopher Sanchez, a policy advocate with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said his organization has also urged state regulators to adopt a robust track-and-trace program. The goal is to prevent immigrants from crossing paths with law enforcement, including any federal agency investigating the diversion of legal marijuana out of state, he said.

“We feel that there needs to be really, really strong (state) regulations,” so the federal government trusts that California has things “under control,” Sanchez said.

The consequences for an immigrant found using marijuana or working in the marijuana industry can be stiff, said Angie Junck, Supervising Attorney with Immigrant Legal Resources Center, a nonprofit advocacy group. An immigrant that merely admits to possession of marijuana when speaking to an immigration official risks derailing their application for lawful status, being denied entry into the U.S., or deportation – even if they haven't been convicted of a crime.

“This would be a big deal for everyone,” Junck said.

Immigrant Legal Resources Center found one woman on a visa was denied re-entry to the U.S. after officials discovered photos of her inside a dispensary that had been posted on Facebook.

As a result, the group advises immigrants to steer clear of marijuana altogether – and to seek legal counsel before leaving the U.S., applying for naturalization or changing their immigration status if they've used or worked with marijuana in the past.

Junck said the threat is particularly acute under the Trump Administration.

“In this environment, immigrants are under attack at every single level,” Junck said. “(Federal law enforcement is) trying to get into and infiltrate state systems and state law enforcement.”

But some of the legal ramifications for immigrants that use or work with cannabis are still untested. Riverside immigration attorney Hadley Bajramovic said she hadn’t seen the two issues intersect until recently, when she was approached by a green card holder that works in a dispensary and wants to become a naturalized citizen.

“My strategy is to go with him to the (naturalization) interview,” she said. That way, if the officer notices that her client works in a marijuana dispensary, she can argue against any objections.

As for tracking marijuana plants as they are grown, processed and sold, immigration advocates aren't taking any chances.

In the letters sent to state cannabis regulators late last year, immigrant rights groups and politicians argued that cannabis regulations released by the California Department of Food and Agriculture should not use “lot track and trace,” which assigns a single identification number to track a batch of up to 100 immature cannabis plants.

"Lot track and trace is an unproven system that threatens to put our immigrant

communities at risk of federal law enforcement interactions," the letters claim.

Instead, language repeated in many of the letters urges regulators to adopt a system that tags every individual plant.

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The letters were signed by the following individuals and organizations in Los Angeles County:

Martha Arévalo, Executive Director, Central American Resource Center

Juan Garza, Councilmember, City of Bellflower

Chris Garcia, Mayor, City of Cudahy

Xel’ha Lopez, Hermandad Mexicana

Jack Hadjinian, City Councilmember, City of Montebello

Gilbert A. Cedillo, City Councilmember, Los Angeles First District

Ivan Altamirano, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Commerce

Hugo Argumedo, Councilmember, City of Commerce

Leonard Mendoza, Councilmember, City of Commerce

Oralia Y. Rebolla, Mayor, City of Commerce

John Soria, Councilmember, City of Commerce

Aide Castro, Councilmember, City of Lynwood

Edwin E. Hernandez, Executive Director/CEO, Florence-Firestone/Walnut Park Chamber of Commerce

Heberto M. Sanchez, Founder and President, Latino Educational Fund

Lisa D. Baca, Executive Director, California Latino Leadership Institute

A spokesperson for CalCannabis, Rebecca Forée, said California's rules already call for plant tagging throughout each plant's life cycle.

Each immature plant in a lot is labeled with a unique identifier tag number, or UID, assigned to that lot. Then, once a plant flowers, "it is considered mature and at that point it is individually labeled with a different UID number," Forée wrote in an email.

California's track-and-trace regimen shares some qualities with existing systems, including that it uses the same software, METRC, as many other states, including Colorado, Michigan and Oregon.

Ryan Fingerhut, a partner with cannabis services firm High Road Consulting Group, said he thinks California's tracking program is even more rigorous than in other states.

Plus, Fingerhut said the cannabis business is already on a tight leash when it comes to employment. Companies typically have to run background checks on anyone they hire and they're required to keep employment records on-site. That means that anyone that can't work in the U.S. legally is unlikely to find work in a legal dispensary.

"We’re not allowed anything under the table," Fingerhut said.

Amy DiPierro covers real estate and business news at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. You can reach her at amy.dipierro@desertsun.com or follow her on Twitter @amydipierro.