AOC Unleashed! Leftist Latina tears into Biden for excluding illegals from marijuana pardon

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants fellow Democrat, President Joe Biden, expand his executive order pardoning marijuana possession offenses to include illegal immigrants.

“Contrary to rhetoric, Biden is not actually pardoning ALL federal simple marijuana possession convictions, only some," the Bronx bombshell Congresswoman wrote on social media. "His executive order discriminates based on immigration status, which is frankly upsetting and inexcusable.

“If the assertion here is that these laws should have never existed and were racist in their enforcement and impact, then the pardons should be for all impacted by them. It's upsetting to see the racial impact of the War on Drugs recognized while perpetuating that impact by excluding immigrants from pardoning, who could significantly stand to benefit from it.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been calling on Biden to use his executive authority since he came into office to change marijuana policies. 

“Biden needs to lean on his executive authority now. He has been delaying and underutilizing it so far,” she tweeted in December 2021. “There is an enormous amount he can do on climate, student debt, immigration, cannabis, health care, and more. Time is running out—we need to move and use alternative paths.”

But a policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a watchdog policy group that monitors migration patterns and immigration law issues has said that expanding the order as Ocasio-Cortez has advocated for would "undoubtedly benefit illegal alien drug traffickers." 

A CIS report that analyzed the issue also found that the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that the increase in federal sentencing for simple possession of drugs “is almost entirely attributable to a single drug type — marijuana — and to offenders who were arrested at or near the U.S./Mexico border.”

The report, which studied U.S. possession charges from FY2008 and FY2013, says that “it's important to know the data behind these prosecutions in case the Biden administration starts signaling a plan to expand the scope of this proclamation.”

The report says that offenders arrested at or near the border almost always have exponentially more drugs in their possession, signaling they are transporting them for trafficking purposes.

“Offenders apprehended at or near the U.S./Mexico border were arrested with a substantially greater amount of marijuana than Non-Border offenders — 48.5 pounds compared to 5.2 grams — an amount that does not appear to correspond to the Office of National Drug Control Policy definition of simple possession of drugs,” the report explains. “This difference in quantity suggests that the sizable increase in simple possession cases in recent years is the result of marijuana drug trafficking cases in which the offender was sentenced only for a possession offense.

As it stands now, the president’s executive order grants a "complete, and unconditional pardon" to citizens and legal permanent residents “who committed the offense of simple possession of marijuana in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, as currently codified at 21 U.S.C. 844 and as previously codified elsewhere in the United States Code, or in violation of D.C. Code 48–904.01(d)(1), on or before the date of this proclamation, regardless of whether they have been charged with or prosecuted for this offense on or before the date of this proclamation.”

One of the advocacy groups asking Biden not to deport undocumented immigrants for marijuana possession is The Immigrant Defense Project (IDP), which published its views on social media.

“If POTUS thinks no one should be in jail for marijuana possession, then no one should be deported for it either,” the IDP posted on Twitter, while linking a report on the “immigration consequences of a marijuana offense.” 

The report claims that “people of color, which includes immigrants, are disproportionately targeted in marijuana arrests” and “non-citizens get punished beyond the already harsh consequences of a marijuana conviction.”

The report tries to strike an emotional chord, saying that the lives of undocumented immigrants can easily be ruined by even misdemeanor charges.

“You might not know that non-citizens get punished beyond the already harsh consequences of marijuana conviction. Overnight, the lives they’ve built in the U.S. over decades can be destroyed. They can be torn from their families and exiled to a now-unfamiliar country."