DRUG RULING RAISES DEPORTATION SHIELD

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds of foreign-born Californians with one-time
convictions for drug possession will be shielded from deportation by a new
federal appeals court ruling, say immigration lawyers.

Overturning an Immigration and Naturalization Service policy, the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that legal immigrants couldn't be
deported for a drug possession conviction that had been "expunged," or
erased from the books, under state law.

Expungement is available in California for first-time offenders who have
successfully completed probation, usually a period of one to three years.
The issue is crucial for many noncitizens because federal laws requiring
deportation for criminal convictions have been expanded in recent years.

Crimes that are now grounds for automatic deportation include any adult
drug conviction, no matter when it occurred, except possession of a small
amount of marijuana. Tuesday's ruling bars deportation if the conviction
was expunged.

The court didn't decide whether expunged convictions for other crimes could
still be grounds for deportation. Even so, hundreds of immigrants in
California, and many more in the circuit's other eight states, will be
protected by the ruling, said two San Francisco lawyers who took part in
the case.

"It's going to have a big impact on people in California," said Katherine
Brady of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Under the INS policy, she
said, "for first-offense simple possession of a drug, you'd be ripped away
from your family and job, and even if you lived here 30 years with a green
card you'd be gone.'

"It's hugely significant, but it's a narrower decision than we had hoped
for" because nondrug cases remain unresolved, said attorney Robert Jobe.

INS officials were reviewing the ruling and had no comment.

The case involved immigrants from Arizona and Idaho, both longtime legal
residents, who faced deportation orders because of drug convictions that
were later expunged under state law.