Green cards grant foreign nationals the right to live and work in the U.S. as permanent residents.
They’re valid for ten years and have to new renewed.
“Only the immigration judge can take away that green card.
The Trump administration thinks that they can expand that and do some crazy things,”
said Curtis Morrison,
an immigration attorney in California with experience litigating against the Trump administration.
“But the law as it is now — he needs to be able to appear before an immigration judge.”
The government has to initiate removal proceedings in immigration court,
and an individual has the right to go before a judge to defend themselves and understand the government reasoning for the potential deportation.
“[It’s the] Immigration and Nationality Act
— which describes different kinds of conduct or crimes that could trigger somebody with a green card being deported and put into court proceedings to have them deported,”
said Gregory Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The law doesn’t always require convictions for green card holders to be deported.
“There is a long list of behaviors, conduct and also crimes.
If somebody’s been convicted of something that could make somebody deportable if they have a green card,” he said.
Chen hadn’t heard of other green card cases like Schmidt’s other than that of Palestinian and Syrian student activist #Mahmoud #Khalid in New York City,
a green card holder who is currently detained due to his protest activity at Columbia University.
In that case, attorneys are relying partially on First Amendment right of protest.
“We have seen a disturbing trend from the federal government to target people who have legal immigration status,”
said Chen,
including not just those who have green cards, but people with visas and varying legal statuses.
“Denying a green card holder admission on such a minor charge would be an extreme case,
but it is possible under the law,”
said Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, immigration law professor at Cornell Law School of the pot possession charge and deportation.
The reasons a green card holder can be deported include many kinds of criminal convictions, even if those convictions are from a long time ago and even some very minor convictions.
For marijuana convictions, a person is deportable unless the conviction is for possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana for one’s own use, she said.
Otherwise, any controlled substances offense makes a green card holder deportable.
https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-03-14/green-card-holder-from-new-hampshire-interrogated-at-logan-airport-detained