U.S. IMMIGRANT FACES EXPULSION ON POT CHARGE

A legal immigrant faces deportation for possession of what he says is
medical marijuana for his wife, who is a U.S. citizen with cancer, a San
Francisco immigrant rights group said yesterday.

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center said Ismael Valenzuela of Sacramento and
his wife, Mae, bought two pounds of marijuana in 1994 and planned to use it
as a treatment for pain.

Valenzuela, an immigrant from Mexico, said he took the rap for his ailing
wife, a U.S. citizen, when he pleaded guilty in 1995.

Now the 37-year-old truck driver contends that he has paid his debt to
society and that it would be unduly harsh on his five dependent children to
force him to return to Mexico.

"Is this the fairness the government is always talking about on the news? Is
this what they are talking about? Is this what America is about?" he said
yesterday.

Valenzuela's predicament stems from the federal Illegal Immigration Reform
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which eliminated waivers for legal
immigrants facing deportation for felonies.

Previously, judges could grant waivers when deportation would hurt U.S.
citizens, such as Valenzuela's children.