The Trump administration is claiming credit for ramping up deportations of immigrants who’ve been arrested that earned them a place on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “worst of the worst” list. That includes at least 77 people whose sole listed offense is marijuana possession.
Although President Donald Trump has previously said he doesn’t think people should be jailed for possessing cannabis, and he’s moved to expedite the completion of a rule to federally reschedule marijuana, DHS is still doing a digital perp walk of noncitizens who were subject to deportation after being arrested for simple possession.
A review of the department’s “worst of the worst” list by Marijuana Moment found at least 77 instances where the only crime attributed to a featured deportee was possessing cannabis, which is a federal crime but one that’s rarely prosecuted on its own, especially in recent years as more states have enacted legalization.
There are many more individuals on the DHS list that involve marijuana—coupled with additional crimes such as unlawful sales, smuggling, probation violations, illegal reentry to the U.S. and possession of other controlled substances.
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is highlighting the worst of worst criminal aliens arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” a description of the online resource, which also allows people to share the profiles of deportees on social media, says. “Under DHS leadership, the hardworking men and women of DHS and ICE are fulfilling President Trump’s promise and carrying out mass deportations—starting with the worst of the worst—including the illegal aliens you see here.”
It should be noted that information detailed in the DHS profiles of deportees is limited. Each profile shows a photo of the individual, their country of origin, the location of their arrest and a summary of their alleged crimes. For the marijuana cases, there are no details about the amount of marijuana a person possessed or additional context on the prosecution. It’s also not clear to what extent the list is exhaustive and whether other immigrants have been arrested over possession who did not meet the administration’s “worst of the worst” threshold.
In any case, the DHS list is apparently intending to maximize the perception that the administration is effectively targeting its enforcement efforts against serious criminals who do not have U.S. citizenship. It was developed as Trump and DHS have faced mounting pressure to deescalate aggressive anti-immigration tactics that have sparked protests—as well as pushback from Democratic congressional lawmakers who’ve held up DHS appropriations legislation until policy compromises are secured.
Trump, for his part, said during the 2024 election that “it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”
Marijuana Moment reached out to DHS for comment, but a representative did not immediately respond.
Federal marijuana and immigration issues have overlapped in other ways in the past, including in New Mexico where U.S. Customers and Border Protection (CBP) faced criticism from state-licensed marijuana retails who sued after having cannabis products, vehicles and cash seized at domestic checkpoints, despite their compliance with state law.
Last month, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against CBP, rejecting the marijuana operators’ claims of constitutional violations under the Fifth and Tenth Amendment in large part because cannabis remains federally illegal, superseding New Mexico’s cannabis policy.
Meanwhile, according to a 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), at CBP checkpoints across the country, agents are mostly taking small amounts of marijuana from American citizens, rather than making large busts of international cartels as some might assume.
A study published in 2024 separately found that states that legalize marijuana see a “moderate relative decrease” in immigrant deportation rates compared to states where the drug remains illegal, as well as a slight decrease in overall cannabis-related arrests.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
