New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has long used her pardon powers to spare criminal noncitizens from deportation.
For instance, in December 2022, Hochul pardoned nine foreign nationals who engaged in criminal activity after migrating to the United States — crimes including drug dealing, theft, robbery witness tampering, and drug possession.
“Clemency is a powerful tool that can be exercised to advance the interests of justice and fairness and to recognize efforts made by individuals to improve not only their own lives but the lives of those around them,” the Democratic governor said at the time.
Vatthanavong ‘would be on a deportation flight to Laos’ were it not for Hochul’s intervention.
The Democrat governor has issued yet another slew of pardons, but this she time did so without any fanfare and announced them only after the New York Times reported on the decision — likely because she was helping a killer avoid deportation.
Sammy Vatthanavong, 52, reportedly entered the U.S. as a refugee from Laos with his family around the age of 7. He was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in 1990 after gunning down an unarmed man two years earlier during a confrontation in a Brooklyn pool hall.
According to AsAmNews, Vatthanavong — who claimed he acted in self-defense — was sentenced to 14 years in prison and stripped of his green card.
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Photo by TheStewartofNY/Getty Images
Mekong NYC — a Southeast Asian-focused liberal organization in New York City that is committed to “creating a strong safety net rooted in community power” — and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund waged a months-long pressure campaign to get Hochul to pardon Vatthanavong.
Mekong NYC claimed the governor “has a moral responsibility to take every step possible to protect our immigrant communities” and accused the Trump administration of “heinous” attacks on immigrants.
Both groups stressed the urgency of the pardon, suggesting that without it, his deportation was all but guaranteed.
Hochul granted the killer an unconditional pardon on July 1, one day ahead of his mandatory immigration appointment, where Mekong NYC suggested he stood a risk of arrest.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to the New York Times that Vatthanavong “would be on a deportation flight to Laos” were it not for Hochul’s intervention.
“If you are a convicted criminal alien, you should not have the privilege to be in this country,” added McLaughlin.
‘I’ll be damned if I let them be deported to a country where they don’t know a soul.’
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) noted that Hochul tried to get the pardon through without New Yorkers finding out.
“Kathy Hochul was caught red-handed for secretly pardoning a violent illegal felon,” Stefanik said in a statement. “Her dangerous secret pardon of this violent criminal illegal who should have been deported 35 years ago after his conviction is just another example of her putting criminals and illegals first instead of law-abiding New Yorkers.”
“What is most shameful is the Worst Governor in America Kathy Hochul issued this heinous pardon in secret, hoping New Yorkers wouldn’t find out,” added Stefanik.
Hochul suggested that the criminal noncitizen who fatally wounded an unarmed man should remain in the country because he supposedly poses no threat.
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Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Unless I believe someone poses a danger, I follow what the Bible tells us: ‘Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you,'” Hochul said in a statement to the New York Times. “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.”
“Without the community that rallied behind me, I would have been on that deportation flight to Southeast Asia today with over 100 others,” Vatthanavong said in a statement obtained by AsAmNews. “This pardon from Governor Hochul feels like being reborn. Everyone deserves a second chance, and my story is proof that when our communities fight together, we can protect each other.”
Blaze News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security about whether Vatthanavong can still be arrested and then deported.
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