United States immigration officers have detained and are mulling over the deportation of a Filipino green card holder over an old drug charge for which he was already sentenced, amid a worrying trend of American immigrants targeted for the slightest infractions.
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Sonny Lasquite was returning home from a holiday in the Bahamas on July 28 when US Customs and Border Protection detained him at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. He is now under the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and is reportedly being held at an ICE detention centre in Georgia.
Lasquite held prior criminal charges in 2012 for distributing controlled substances, with court records reviewed by Newsweek indicating that the Filipino national had “intentionally and knowingly” possessed with the intent to distribute Schedule IV narcotics, including diazepam, alprazolam, zolpidem and carisoprodol.
However, the court eventually sentenced Lasquite to time served after he cooperated with authorities in identifying conspirators in the distribution and promptly taking responsibility for his actions.
Yet it was the same conviction that had raised flags in the federal system and led to Lasquite’s present fate.
A GoFundMe page set up by a friend of Lasquite’s family to help pay for his legal fees and other urgent needs described him as a lawful permanent resident of the US since 2022, as well as a “hardworking man, the sole breadwinner for his family, and a beloved friend and community member”.