Kathy Hochuls pardon travesty lifts immigrant criminals over Americans safety
How far will New York Gov.Kathy Hochul go to keep immigrant criminals in this country?So far she’ll even pardon a man convicted of an aggravated felony, if that’s what it takes to prevent the US Supreme Court from setting a restrictionist precedent.Keisy Guerrero Mariano is a Dominican who spent two years in prison for committing a violent crime — second-degree assault.Guerrero Mariano, known as “G.M.” in court documents, is exactly the sort of lawbreaker Americans overwhelmingly want to see deported.But not Hochul; she granted him clemency on Aug.
28.His case stood out from those of the other five people she pardoned that day.The others were non-violent offenders who’d committed their crimes decades ago — two in the 1980s, two in the ’90s, and just one as recently as 2007.G.M.was convicted in 2015.Yet the governor decided he merited special leniency, for political reasons.Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested G.M.
in 2020, intending to deport him based on his criminal record.ICE had to let him go in 2022, however, because of a nationwide injunction related to COVID that required the agency to review custody of individuals with certain medical conditions.While ICE had him, though, G.M.’s lawyers challenged the agency’s right to hold him for a prolonged time without a bond hearing.That’s what Hochul’s pardon is really about.President Donald Trump’s Justice Department planned to make the Dominican’s appeals a test case before the Supreme Court — one likely to establish that G.M.and others like him are not entitled to a bond hearing.Bond hearings are an easily exploited weakness in America’s immigration security: They protract the legal process of deporting lawbreakers, while also giving them an opportunity to get out of detention temporarily — and then permanently, by failing to show up when they’re due for their next hearing.G.M.
came to this country legally in 2011, but he forfeited any right to remain here once he commi...