The Supreme Court will hear a case involving a Mexican immigrant that could affect hundreds of immigrants who face deportation each year due to drug-related charges. The case involves José Angel Carachuri-Rosendo, a lawful permanent resident of Texas who was deported for possession of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

The case will shine the spot light on he Court’s lone Hispanic justice, Sonia Sotomayor, who last month made History by using the phrase “undocumented immigrant” instead of “illegal immigrant” for the first time in an official Court ruling.

Carachuri-Rosendo appealed the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling based on the claim that he was denied an opportunity to make a case as to why he should be allowed to remain in the United States. 

The appellate court ruled that his Xanax possession conviction renders him deportable without the opportunity for him to make a case to stay and without any consideration of the effect his deportation will have on his four children and fiancé, all of whom are U.S. citizens. He has lived in the United States since he was four years old.

In 2004, Carachuri-Rosendo pled no contest to possession of less than two ounces of marijuana for which he served 20 days. The following year, he was convicted of possessing a tablet of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, for which he did not have prescription, and served another ten days in jail.

Even though both convictions were misdemeanor convictions and though his second conviction did not come under recidivism provisions, the court considered it a “drug trafficking crime,” a deportable offense, and the government initiated deportation proceedings.

The Supreme Court will have the opportunity to clarify whether a second possession conviction can be considered a “drug trafficking crime” without any recidivism findings present. Appeals courts have been historically divided on the matter.

The Obama Administration has backed the high court’s review of the matter because of the split, but has also called for the lower court’s ruling to be upheld.

The action by the Supreme Court will also bring attention to immigration laws passed by Congress in 1996 which eliminated the discretion of immigration judges to make individualized decisions about whether a person should be deported.