ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul has been quietly pardoning migrants with decades-old criminal histories — including at least one who killed another man.
The Dem governor recently granted the extreme act of clemency to 13 migrants, including Somchith Vatthanavong, a 52-year-old Laotian man who entered the US illegally and was convicted of manslaughter in 1990, the New York Times first reported.
Vatthanavong, who fled to the US after the Vietnam War, claimed to the outlet that he was defending himself during an altercation outside a pool hall when he fatally shot a man.
“They’ve paid their debt, and I’ll be damned if I let them be deported to a country where they don’t know a soul,” Hochul told the Times in defending her decision.
“And to those who would demonize them to score political points, I ask: Where is your compassion?”
A convict who is pardoned is freed from prison even if he has time left to serve. In these New York cases, since Vatthanayong and the other recipients were already released, it means they avoid other consequences for their crimes, such as being flagged for deportation. The pardon does not seal or expunge their records.
Hochul’s pardon rhetoric is a stark pivot from her repeated pledges to work with ICE and other federal authorities to deport criminal migrants.
“There is no sanctuary in New York for people who commit crimes. New York is committed to cracking down on gang members and violent criminals, and State officials cooperate with ICE and CBP in many circumstance,” Hochul’s office wrote in a memo before her testimony to the House Oversight Committee defending New York’s sanctuary policy earlier this year.
Hochul said the migrants she pardoned include several lawful permanent US residents from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and South Africa. It is not clear who besides Vatthanayong may have entered the US illegally.
The governor only revealed the pardons after the Times story ran Friday.
“After careful deliberation, I’m granting clemency to thirteen individuals who have demonstrated remorse for their actions and exemplify a commitment to bettering their communities,” Hochul wrote in the statement on the state’s web site.
After Vatthanavong’s conviction, he had been eventually ordered to be deported by a federal immigration judge, though he was never removed because Laos hasn’t cooperated with US deportation proceedings for years.
Hochul’s office did not say if she intends to continue pardoning migrants in similar situations to Vatthanavong’s.
It said she’s received 84 eligible pardon applications and 186 applications for commutations since the beginning of this year.
