… Judge Cites Drug Conviction in Denial of Green Card
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a removal order against the Chief of Dansoman, Marty Danso, a Ghanaian national, in a decision filed June 15, 2007, court records show. Case No. 05-60919, Marty Danso v. Alberto R. Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General.
According to the court’s opinion, Danso had asked the court to review a Board of Immigration Appeals decision. An immigration judge previously denied his requests for cancellation of removal and adjustment of status and ordered his removal from the United States.
The appeals court wrote: “We affirm,” upholding the lower ruling. Court documents state Danso entered the U.S. without inspection. After briefly leaving in 1989, he returned and was paroled into the country for one year. Removal proceedings began in 2002.
The government alleged removability based on two grounds: a conviction involving a controlled substance, and alleged trafficking in controlled substances. The immigration judge sustained the charge related to the drug conviction but did not sustain the trafficking allegation.
The opinion notes Danso is a citizen of Ghana and that in 1982 he was convicted in England of a crime involving the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of cannabis, for which he received a 12-month prison sentence. He later conceded removability for failing to maintain a valid immigrant visa, a charge the judge also sustained. Danso had applied for an immigrant visa petition, cancellation of removal, and adjustment of status, but the immigration judge denied those requests.
