The Immigration Politics of a Felon’s Pardon

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 United States 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.

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 nonviolent 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.

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-19 that required the agency to review the 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—the Trump administration 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, not only protracting the legal process of deporting lawbreakers but also giving them an opportunity to get out of detention temporarily—and then permanently fail 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 committed a felony.

Only now Hochul has nullified his conviction to undercut ICE’s grounds for removing him and collapse the appeals process that was leading to the Supreme Court—and to a probable defeat for those who want to make deportation as difficult as possible.

The governor isn’t looking out for New Yorkers here:

Her maneuver is about liberal politicians’ zeal for maximum immigration, even when it means letting violent criminals remain in our communities.

This is the second lucky break Hochul’s side has had recently.

The other test case the Trump administration had teed up, involving a Jamaican national convicted (also in New York) of sexually abusing a child under the age of 11, has been taken out of the courts as well, after the offender left the country and filed a court declaration saying he would not be coming back to America.

Self-deportation is one way to get immigrants convicted of heinous crimes out of here.

But ICE can’t deport someone who has already deported himself, so his claim of a right to a bond hearing is now completely moot.

The big question still has to be answered, though: Can immigration enforcement detain these violent perps and sex offenders until they can be tossed out?

Or if they’ve been in custody for a while, are they entitled to bond hearings that will further delay their removal—and give them the chance to escape back into Americans’ neighborhoods?

Solicitor General John Sauer says he’s not going to let Hochul’s gambit succeed.

G.M.’s case may have been pulled, but Sauer aims to find another that will bring the fight to the Supreme Court.

“Mandatory deportation” should mean just that—even a legal immigrant who commits a serious offense ought to be expelled promptly, and he shouldn’t get the benefit of a bond hearing just because his case takes longer than it should and he winds up in “prolonged” detention.

He shouldn’t get the benefit of a liberal governor’s partisan machinations, either.

New Yorkers—American citizens—elected Hochul, and she should put them first, not foreigners who commit crimes while they’re here, legally or otherwise.

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