By Erick Soto, Partnerships Director, National Cannabis Festival

After the 2020 U.S. elections, marijuana use is now legal in 36 states in the United States and the District of Columbia. According to New Frontier Data, in 2019 the U.S. cannabis industry generated around $13.2 billion sales with potential growth of becoming a $35 billion industry by 2025. In 2019, the industry supported an estimated 211k jobs and grew to an estimated 244k. Despite the growth potential, minorities in the US, continue to be disproportionately excluded from market participation. Including the immigrant population, which finds itself particularly at risk of having to choose between missing out on opportunities to work in a legal cannabis industry or risk being denied the opportunity to become US citizens.

“Including the immigrant population, which finds itself particularly at risk of having to choose between missing out on opportunities to work in a legal cannabis industry or risk being denied the opportunity to become US citizens.”

Oswaldo Barrientos is an immigrant in Colorado who used to work in the state-licensed marijuana industry in 2014. Oswaldo immigrated from El Salvador as an infant and was later granted legal permanent residency status. He was raised in the United States, had no criminal history, paid his taxes, and saw an opportunity to work for a state-licensed company as a cultivator. However, during an in-person interview for his citizenship application, Oswaldo was surprised that the majority of the questions were about his work with the state-licensed marijuana company. According to a 2019 news report, several weeks after his interview, Oswaldo received a letter from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stating that his citizenship application was denied because “he lacked moral character” despite his clean record.

“According to a 2019 news report, several weeks after his interview, Oswaldo received a letter from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stating that his citizenship application was denied because “he lacked moral character” despite his clean record.”

According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), a person applying for citizenship can be denied status if they are found in any way to have been associated with marijuana even in states where it is legal. Transacting, cultivating, and even possession, no matter how small, are all grounds to potentially deny an applicant citizenship status. However, advocates and some legislators are looking to help immigrants through the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act that addresses these unfair laws by decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level and removing it from the Controlled Substances Act. Among some of the other provisions in the bill states that immigrants with a record of use or possession of marijuana, or prior conviction for a marijuana offense, will have no adverse impact under the immigration laws.

”Many immigrant lawyers have only one suggestion for immigrants, stay away from anything to do with marijuana.”

Kathy Brady from the ILRC, advises that immigrants without any citizenship status must stay away from the marijuana industry altogether. During a panel discussion at the 2020 National Cannabis Policy Summit, Attorney Brady goes so far as to advise immigrants to avoid wearing anything with marijuana images, avoid having any pictures of marijuana, or being in pictures with anything that may be perceived as marijuana since immigration officials can use those as evidence to deport applicants looking to received status in the U.S.