Far-left Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has pardoned 13 illegal aliens who committed violent and other crimes. Her stated goal: keep them from being deported.
One of them was Laotian killer Somchith Vatthanavong, 52. He was slated for deportation back to where he belongs — Laos — when Hochul pulled out her pardon pen.
One reason he wasn’t deported decades ago: Laos refuses to accept Laotian deportees.
Pool-hall Shooting
Hochul announced clemency for the baker’s dozen of “migrants” three days ago, but acted to protect Vatthanavong — who shot and killed a man in a pool-hall fight in 1988— before that.
He “legally entered the United States as a refugee when he was a child, fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War, [and] served 14 years in prison before being released in 2003,” the Times reported:
He then built a life in New York, marrying and raising two children who are U.S. citizens.
But President Trump’s return to power heightened the likelihood that Mr. Vatthanavong would be deported because of his conviction 35 years earlier. So community groups and his wife and lawyers mounted a campaign to persuade the governor’s office — through petitions, meetings and phone calls — to pardon Mr. Vatthanavong, a move that could result in his deportation order being vacated.
On July 1 — the day before Mr. Vatthanavong had a mandatory immigration appointment that his lawyers believed would lead to his arrest — Ms. Hochul signed a certificate granting him an unconditional pardon, “including offering relief from removal.”
Whether Hochul has the power to offer such “relief” is unclear. Vatthanavong — despite his claim of self-defense — is a convicted felon, which the far-left governor’s action does not alter.
Of course, his supporters say, he is “rehabilitated,” the Times reported. And the Southeast Asian lobby in New York petitioned the governor to help him out.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman Tricia McLaughlin told the Times that were it not for Hochul, Vatthanavong “would be on a deportation flight to Laos.”
“If you are a convicted criminal alien, you should not have the privilege to be in this country,” she told the newspaper.
Hochul is unrepentant. She pulled out her undoubtedly dog-eared, well-worn Bible to justify keeping the killer and other criminal “migrants” in the country.
“One of the toughest calls a governor can make is when another person’s fate is in their hands,” the Times reported of her excuse:
Unless I believe someone poses a danger, I follow what the Bible tells us: “Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you.”
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.
And to those who would demonize them to score political points, I ask: Where is your compassion?
Why Wasn’t He Deported?
The Times also explained how Vatthanavong remained in the country.
Though “aggravated felony convictions automatically trigger the deportation of green card holders” and a judge ordered him deported, “federal immigration authorities were unable to deport him after his release from prison in 2003 because Laos has long refused to issue travel documents to Laotians whom the United States wants to deport.”
That’s rather an interesting position for Laos to adopt. U.S. taxpayers have shoveled $56.5 million into the Third World nation since 2001. Perhaps the threat of a cut-off might affect its mulish refusal to take back its own criminals. Vatthanavong is just one of almost 5,000 Laotians with final deportation orders, the Times reported.
That aside, the other “migrants” whom Hochul freed “included three lawful permanent residents from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and South Africa who pleaded guilty to selling cocaine more than 20 years ago, as well as a Colombian who pleaded guilty to attempting to rob someone and riding in a stolen car,” her office confessed.
On X, GOP U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik of New York called Vatthanavong’s pardon “dangerous” and “secret,” noting that he “should have been deported 35 years ago after his conviction.”
The New York Post observed that Hochul has vowed to work with the Trump administration to deport criminal illegals.
“There is no sanctuary in New York for people who commit crimes,” she said:
New York is committed to cracking down on gang members and violent criminals, and State officials cooperate with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and [U.S. Customs and Border Protection].
Apparently, Hochul’s list of “violent criminals” does not include Laotian pool-hall gunmen and Colombian robbers.
Violating Federal Statutes
During the weekend, far-left Democratic New York Assemblyman Robert Carroll told Hochul to shut off electric power to the federal building that houses the federal immigration court, where ICE is arresting illegals. Hochul must declare an emergency, he said, and cut power to stop the “illegal and immoral actions of ICE occupying this building.”
Were Hochul to do so, she and officials who aided and abetted such a lunatic plan might violate the federal statutes that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi outlined in her letter to Hochul and other sanctuary state governors:
• 8 U.S. Code 1324, Bringing in and harboring aliens;
• 18 U.S. Code 371, Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States;
• 18 U.S. Code 1071, Concealing person from arrest;
• 18 U.S. Code 1505, Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees; and/or
• 8 U.S. Code 1373, Communication between government agencies and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
