By Lester Black, Cannabis editor July 30, 2025 (SFGate.com)
FILE: People on a moving walkway in front of 787 Dreamliners parked at San Francisco International Airport gates on Sept. 11, 2017, in San Francisco.George Rose/Getty Images
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown appears to have kept a Texas scientist who was born in Korea locked inside San Francisco International Airport for over a week with little access to basic necessities, according to the man’s attorney.
Tae Heung “Will” Kim, a 40-year-old who has permanent residency in the United States and has lived in the country since he was five, was detained at the airport on July 21 after returning from Korea, according to the Washington Post. Eric Lee, one of Kim’s attorneys, said the man has been denied access to an attorney.
Lee said in a post to X that Kim has been forced to sleep in a chair for more than a week with no access to daylight, and described the situation as “another brutal attack on immigrants & science.” Kim is a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University where he is studying vaccine development, according to the Post.
While Kim’s attorneys have said they have not been told why authorities are holding the man, his case appears to be an example of the Trump administration weaponizing marijuana offenses to increase the amount of people who are deported from the country. One of Trump’s primary campaign promises was to conduct mass deportations of millions of immigrants.
Hilton Beckham, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in an email to SFGATE that Kim is “in ICE custody pending removal proceedings” and referenced that he was previously “convicted of a drug offense.”
Chris Godshall-Bennett, another attorney for Kim, told the San Francisco Chronicle that his client was arrested for minor marijuana possession in Texas in 2011 and served community service. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
Marijuana normalization has created a dangerous situation for American immigrants, even under previous administrations. Despite the drug being legalized in dozens of states, it remains federally illegal, and immigrants can face deportation for simply saying they have possessed the drug in the past, according to a report by San Francisco’s Immigrant Legal Resource Center, or ILRC.
“State laws legalizing marijuana provide many benefits, but unfortunately, they also are a trap for unwary immigrants,” the report says.
Separately, the Trump administration has also ramped up enforcement against legal and illegal cannabis farms in an apparent attempt to deport immigrants. Federal agents arrested over 300 people earlier this month at a legal cannabis farm in Ventura County, resulting in a chaotic scene and leaving one immigrant dead.
Prior presidents have also used marijuana as a way to deport immigrants. In a 2021 case, the Biden administration attempted to deport a legal permanent resident over two marijuana charges, until the Ninth Circuit court ruled that minor marijuana infractions themselves are not themselves grounds for deportation. The ILRC report says that this case created an exception where a person being convicted of possessing 30 grams or less does not make them deportable, which could protect someone like Kim. However, that exception does not provide any protection if the person leaves the country and tries to return, at which point they can be denied reentry.
Richard Kolomejec, an immigration attorney based in San Francisco, said this is likely why Kim has been held.
“That exception only works to protect a green card holder who is here (and remains here) from being deported,” Kolomejec said in an email to SFGATE. Kim had left the United States to attend his brother’s wedding in Korea, according to the Post, which may have come at the cost of his immigration status.
Previous administrations have been using marijuana to deport immigrants for years. The ILRC report found that border agents in California and other states have historically “aggressively asked noncitizens if they ever have possessed marijuana, in an attempt to find people inadmissible.” The report recommends that immigrants never admit to marijuana possession or use to a federal agent and also consult with legal advisers before they travel outside of the country.
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An attorney for Kim did not respond to an SFGATE request for comment.
SFGATE travel dditor Silas Valentino contributed reporting to this story.
CANNABIS EDITOR
Lester Black is SFGATE’s cannabis editor. He was born in Torrance, raised in Seattle, and has written for FiveThirtyEight.com, High Country News, The Guardian, The Albuquerque Journal, The Tennessean, and many other publications. He was previously the cannabis columnist for The Stranger.
