DRUGS IN '70s, NO GREEN CARD NOW

Hillsborough Man Says Denial Unfair

HILLSBOROUGH - Terry VanDuzee and his wife lived the first two years
of their marriage apart -- he in Canada, she in Hillsborough -- so he
could enter the U.S. legally.

Now he must leave the country within two weeks because he was charged
with marijuana possession in Canada 30 years ago. He has been
pardoned by his native country.

VanDuzee has worked for a software company in RTP. He plays bass
guitar in a worship band at River of Joy Church in Durham. He and his
wife, Debbie, who has never lived outside North Carolina, have been
trying for six years to get him a green card to make him a permanent
legal U.S. resident. But U.S. law disqualifies him because of three
drug violations in 1977, 1978 and 1979. Controlled substance
violations are one of only two categories of crimes that make visa
applicants ineligible. The other involves "moral turpitude."

"There is no waiver available for an individual who has two or more
controlled substance violations," Jeffrey Sapko, Durham field office
director for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, informed
VanDuzee in a letter last month.

VanDuzee has no criminal record in North Carolina. "I quit doing
drugs and everything else in 1979 and haven't done them since," he said.

VanDuzee admits he's to blame for the 1979 charge; he was caught with
2 ounces of marijuana after stealing a pair of shoes as a homeless 19-year-old.

But in 1977, he says a friend he was with was caught with marijuana
outside a shopping mall. They were both arrested, and the friend
threw eight joints onto the floor of the police car. Officers assumed
the joints belonged to VanDuzee. Either way, he was 17 and says it
should be treated as a juvenile crime and shouldn't affect his
immigration standing. And in 1978, VanDuzee had just arrived at a
friend's home when police raided it and found marijuana on the
premises. Everyone there was charged. "I just happened to be at the
wrong place at the wrong time," he said. "Two of them, I shouldn't
have been charged at all."

VanDuzee has been the sole breadwinner because his wife has limited
motion in her left shoulder. He says the U.S. government is punishing
his family for a few youthful indiscretions.

"They're saying you can't come into the United States if you smoked
marijuana 30 years ago," he said. "From the time I was 13 years old,
I didn't know a single person in that era that didn't smoke drugs,
except for maybe my parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles."
VanDuzee was born in St. John, New Brunswick. He met Debbie in a
Christian chat room in February 2002. She was divorcing her second
husband and had four teenage and adult children; he had been divorced
14 years, the father of a now-16-year-old girl.

He has been in the United States since 2004 on temporary work
authorizations as he waited for his green-card application to be
processed. He has worked as a computer technician and has a potential
job waiting for him at the UNC Institute of Public Health in Carrboro
if he can get a new work permit. VanDuzee doesn't think the
university would sponsor him for a visa. "It is an unfortunate
situation. He's a good guy, just caught between a policy and a hard
place," said Steve Hicks, director of continuing education with the institute.

VanDuzee's latest work authorization expired in April, and he's
afraid his new permit won't come through before he's required to
leave the country. Todd Rubin, a Raleigh immigration lawyer, said
VanDuzee might be able to convince an immigration judge to honor his
Canadian pardons based on a decision out of the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals in San Francisco. But that ruling has not swayed other
districts in the past, he said. VanDuzee said he has no money for an
attorney. The N.C. Justice Center denied his request for help last week.

Debbie VanDuzee says she won't leave her four children and three
grandchildren to go with her husband to Canada.

"I'm just furious that they feel like he's not worth forgiving in 30
years. If he goes back, it will destroy our family and our marriage,"
she said. "I used to think this was a country of justice and freedom."