While this step marked progress, marijuana’s federal legal status has not changed in the three years since. Cannabis remains a federally prohibited substance, and it remains unclear if President Donald Trump will follow through on the process to change its status.

What has changed is the political climate. The Trump administration is actively using the drug war to pursue an agenda that includes large-scale detention and deportation of immigrants. As lawmakers work to change federal marijuana laws, they must not abandon immigrants—who are crucial to sustaining the thriving industry across many states, yet remain some of the most vulnerable to the lingering harms of criminalization.

Since 1970, with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I drug. The CSA organized various substances under five schedules. Schedule I drugs were defined as having “the highest potential for abuse with no accepted medical use,” while Schedule V drugs included those with “the lowest potential for abuse and an accepted medical use.”

But people use cannabis for a wide variety of health issues, from chronic pain to epilepsy to cancer. And the scheduling of marijuana was a decision based on politics and stigma instead of health. The CSA was enacted as part of President Richard Nixon’s all-out War on Drugs, which focused on expanding the size and scope of federal drug control strategies and implementing harsher drug laws to target political opponents.

For immigrants, marijuana criminalization has created a direct path to deportation. This exacerbates the renewed fear among immigrant communities in today’s political climate.

When it comes to marijuana, nearly nine in 10 people in the United States support legalizing it in some form, and it has been decriminalized to some extent in nearly every state. Yet it remains illegal federally. For decades, marijuana criminalization has created a multitude of harms—from saddling people with arrest and conviction records that make it harder to find a job and access benefits, to denying patients medical benefits. Black and Brown people have been disproportionately impacted by these harms due to targeted enforcement, and these communities experience higher arrest and incarceration rates, despite similar drug usage across racial groups.

For immigrants, marijuana criminalization has created a direct path to deportation. This exacerbates the renewed fear among immigrant communities in today’s political climate—and with reason. 

Among those deported in 2025 so far, over 600 individuals are known to have had marijuana-related charges as their most serious conviction—a number that’s likely an undercount. Three-quarters of those convictions occurred at least five years ago.

Unfortunately, while the scale of the threat may be growing, this is nothing new. Immigrants have long faced harsh punishment due to federal marijuana prohibition, even when complying with state laws. Prior marijuana-related convictions—even low-level—have for years had lasting immigration consequences.

Under President Barack Obama, for instance, a woman who grew four small cannabis plants and used them to make a tincture for arthritis pain was nearly deported for a cultivation charge dating back more than a decade.

Noncitizens have been denied citizenship for working in marijuana dispensaries, because such employment is considered evidence of lacking “good moral character.”

Such cases continue today under President Trump. This summer, a Texas researcher made headlines when he was detained at an airport for an old misdemeanor marijuana possession case. Some state officials have been making efforts to protect noncitizens, but even a full pardon by a state governor does not necessarily shield people from deportation or prevent the denial of immigration benefits.

For years, noncitizens have also been denied citizenship for working in marijuana dispensaries—even in states where cannabis is legal—because such employment is considered evidence of lacking “good moral character” under federal immigration standards.

Yet immigrants form an indispensable part of the industry’s workforce. From farm laborers cultivating cannabis to workers packaging the product, they often occupy the most physically demanding roles while holding the least protected jobs across the supply chain.

These systemic vulnerabilities became glaringly evident on July 10, when ICE agents and the National Guard raided two sites at Glass House Farms, one of California’s largest legal cannabis cultivators, resulting in the death of a 57-year-old father and farmworker, Jaime Alanis, and the arrest of over 360 people, including US citizens. 

Right now, marijuana is being weaponized at an even greater scale than before. From the troop deployments in cities like DC and Chicago, to immigration raids across the US, marijuana convictions are being used more and more to arrest, jail, and deport people. Families are being separated, losing jobs and homes—again, even in states where marijuana is legal.

Fully descheduling marijuana, and removing it entirely from the CSA, is essential.

Although there have been recent calls to move marijuana to Schedule III under the CSA, such a change would not resolve the protection gap created by existing federal laws. And it would not honor the wishes of the majority of people who support legalization in some form.

While rescheduling would acknowledge marijuana’s medical value, it would still be classified as a federally prohibited substance—continuing to leave people vulnerable to marijuana criminalization and noncitizens susceptible to immigration penalties. Any involvement with marijuana could still trigger ICE arrests, deportation, or denial of a green card or citizenship.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a stable life—with access to jobs, housing and care—without being held back by the lifelong barriers created by criminalization. Fully descheduling marijuana, and removing it entirely from the CSA, is essential to achieving that. This action would finally end federal marijuana criminalization for good, ensuring that citizens and noncitizens are no longer punished for activities that are legal in their states.

In Congress, a bill to deschedule marijuana was recently reintroduced in the House: the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act (HR 5068). This bill decriminalizes marijuana, expunges marijuana convictions, resentences people in federal prison for marijuana convictions, restores federal public benefits, and reinvests tax dollars into communities most harmed by drug war. The MORE Act would also protect noncitizens from facing immigration penalties for certain cannabis activity post enactment.

However, while the MORE Act provides a good start, it should be improved by ensuring that people are not punished through the immigration system for any past marijuana activity. It should also be improved by ensuring immigrants are not subjected to immigration penalties in states that continue to criminalize marijuana, as this would lead to an unfair double punishment.

For more than 50 years, marijuana criminalization has harmed people by depriving them of job opportunities, federal aid, medical benefits, immigration relief and much more. As federal marijuana reform moves forward, lawmakers must center health and repairing people’s lives over political agendas, stigma and punishment. 

Photograph via Picryl/Public Domain

The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, previously received a restricted grant from the Drug Policy Alliance, where the author interns. Filter‘s Editorial Independence Policy applies.

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