Gov. Jerry Brown of California pardoned five ex-convicts, including two whose families had fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia decades ago. President Trump criticized the move on Twitter on Saturday.CreditRich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Gov. Jerry Brown of California on Friday pardoned five ex-convicts facing possible deportation, drawing criticism from President Trump and heightening continued tensions between Washington and California.

The five immigrants were among 56 pardons and 14 commutations Mr. Brown granted on Friday — Good Friday and the start of Passover — to those who have been out of custody for at least 10 years and have exhibited “exemplary behavior” after their convictions, the governor’s press officesaid.

They included a United States military veteran, Sokha Chhan, a refugee from Cambodia who served nearly a year in jail for the misdemeanors of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and threatening a crime with the intent to terrorize. Phann Pheach, another Cambodian refugee who was pardoned, served six months for possession of a controlled substance for sale and obstructing a police officer.

Mr. Brown also granted pardons to Daniel Maher, who spent five years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping, robbery and using a firearm, and who is now the director of a recycling program in Berkeley, Calif.; Sergio Mena, who was sentenced in 2003 and put on probation for three years for possession of a controlled substance for sale; and Francisco Acevedo Alaniz, who served five months for vehicle theft.

On Saturday morning Mr. Trump tweeted a list of crimes that he linked to the five who were pardoned and asked, “Is this really what the great people of California want?”

“We will definitely not sit by idly as the Trump administration tries to deport immigrants, throw people off health care, ignore climate change and steal our water,” State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, said in January. “It’s about playing defense to whatever the administration throws at us — but also offense in terms of continuing California’s push for progressive social change.”

On Friday, the same day Mr. Brown announced the pardons, Mr. Trump declared April “Second Chance Month,” highlighting the need for ex-convicts to get an opportunity to become contributing members of society.

“I am committed to advancing reform efforts to prevent crime, improve re-entry and reduce recidivism,” Mr. Trump said in a news release.

Mr. Brown, who is serving the final 12 months of his second stint as governor, has granted 1,115 pardons and 51 commutations since taking office in 2011, Evan Westrup, the governor’s press secretary said on Saturday. It amounts to far more than his recent predecessors.

Some of these cases involved immigrants who faced deportation or who had already been deported. An exact breakdown was not immediately available.

In December, Mr. Brown pardoned two men who came to the United States as children, after their families fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, and who were scheduled to be deported for their crimes, The Sacramento Bee reported. Last year, he pardoned three veterans who had been deported to Mexico and in 2015, he pardoned a man who was fighting deportation after serving two decades for burglary and kidnapping, among other crimes.

For ex-convict immigrants, deportation is a severe punishment that is often unwarranted, said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, which seeks to change California’s laws to help immigrants avoid deportation.

“We believe that deportation is an enhancement to their sentences that goes way too far,” she said. “They’ve actually paid their debt to society.”

Immigration law is “so punitive, that it just does not forgive,” she added. “Most judges, their hands are tied behind their back,” she said, and the inability to have any discretion promotes large-scale deportation.

Mr. Trump visited California in mid-March to inspect border wall prototypes designed to keep out undocumented immigrants. The trip came one week after Attorney General Jeff Sessions sued the state over three new immigration laws he called unconstitutional, saying they made it impossible for federal immigration officials to deport criminals who were born outside the United States.

Mr. Brown, a Democrat, said at the time that Mr. Sessions was “basically going to war” with California.

In Mr. Trump’s weekly address on Saturday he took another swipe at California, blaming so-called sanctuary cities for the opioid epidemic, and referring to California as a “sanctuary state” that has become a hub for transporting heroin across the southern border. He also admonished Oakland’s mayor for helping “criminal aliens” elude the authorities because of the city’s “dangerous sanctuary policies.”

“Sanctuary cities put innocent Americans at the mercy of hardened criminals and heartless drug dealers,” Mr. Trump added. “These are bad people.”

That argument — that immigrants bring crime to America — has influenced many of the Trump administration’s policies on immigration. Studies have shown, however, that immigration does not drive crime. According to one recent analysis, a large-scale collaboration by four universities, the areas with the largest increases in immigrants all had lower levels of crime in 2016 than in 1980.

“The data is crystal clear that immigrants do not lead to an increase in crime,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. “I think opponents to immigration like to cherry-pick egregious cases where the individual does not belong in the U.S. and therefore marginalize an entire community.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/us/california-pardon-immigrants.html

The post Jerry Brown Pardons 5 Ex-Convicts Facing Deportation, Provoking Trump first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Standing near a 7-Eleven in Boyle Heights on Thursday morning, Roberto Pedraza hawked tamales and cups of champurrado, the Mexican hot drink, out of insulated jugs stationed on top of plastic crates.

He knew the store chain had been a recent target of immigration raids. Federal agents last week conducted audits and inspections of nearly 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide, including several in Los Angeles.

As the main breadwinner of his family, Pedraza, 42, said he couldn’t afford to abandon the location and lose loyal customers.

“You could say I’m being bold,” he said, chuckling. “Really, I am worried, maybe a little scared. All I can do is run and hope they won’t deport me.”

The 7-Eleven raids, which are national in scope, are just a part of a yearlong game of chicken between the Trump administration and California leaders over immigration. The raids and other events — including Trump’s vulgar remarks about African and Latin American countries, his elimination of temporary legal protections for Salvadorans and the uncertainty surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — have created a sense of repetitive whiplash among some immigrants.

That was before the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that immigration officials are preparing for a major sweep of Northern California cities, in which agents would look to arrest 1,500 immigrants in the country illegally. The Chronicle cited an anonymous source familiar with the operation who said the campaign could happen within weeks.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called the plans “deeply shameful” and “an act of pure malice.”

“The people of San Francisco know that our immigrants are the constant reinvigoration of our community and our nation,” she said. “We will continue to speak out against the administration’s cynical, cowardly attempts to turn our local police forces into deportation forces.”

While it remains unclear whether there will actually be a raid (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not confirmed or denied the existence of the operation), acting Director Thomas Homan earlier this month sounded a warning to California.

Reacting on Fox News to California’s new “sanctuary state” law, which blocks local and state law enforcement from using resources to help federal immigration agents, Homan said:

“California better hold on tight — they’re about to see a lot more deportation officers. If politicians don’t protect their communities, then ICE will.”

Trump’s broadsides against California play well to his conservative base, which sees the state as the ultimate symbol of much of what they oppose — including immigration and environmental policies. Trump was the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to skip a visit to California in his first calendar year of office. The state has been a leader in fighting against much of the Trump agenda.

California Republican campaign consultant Rob Stutzman said politicians in the state can also enjoy the fight because it similarly boosts their base.

“There’s almost a macabre symbiotic relationship that I think California leaders have with the Trump administration at the moment,” he said. “But it’s bad for embattled Republicans in California.”

Stutzman said the key for those Republicans to retain their seats is to not energize more Democrats to vote in the midterm elections — something that increased ICE raids could do.

While Stutzman said any dire consequences from the political enmity between the state and federal governments haven’t yet manifested, he said it could get confusing for people and businesses responding to conflicting state and federal policies.

“Which master are they supposed to serve — the federal or state government?” he said.

Since Trump became president, Pedraza said he has been reading up on immigration law and civil rights. He also now watches the news twice a day to keep up with the back-and-forth between California and Trump administration officials.

“Why doesn’t he focus on anybody else?” Pedraza said. “Sometimes I get the feeling he doesn’t want California to exist. He looks at the state as if it’s filled with only criminals.”

This week, several California public officials released statements reacting to the rumored upcoming raids.

The state’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, asked Homan to brief them on how immigration raids are prioritized and requested all communications regarding upcoming raids in the state.

“We firmly believe that law enforcement must prioritize dangerous criminals, not undocumented immigrants who do not pose a threat to public safety,” the senators wrote. “Diverting resources in an effort to punish California and score political points is an abhorrent abuse of power, not to mention a terrible misuse of scarce resources.”

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi vowed to assist residents who are targeted in raids. San Francisco is one of three cities in the country that provide free public defense for detained immigrants. Adachi’s office represents nearly 70 clients currently in detention facilities.

“We will resist the Trump administration’s attempts to divide our communities,” he said. “I don’t think they have thought through exactly how hard we will fight back in court.”

Concerned about rumblings of possible immigration sweeps, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Thursday warned employers that he is prepared to seek fines against them if they violate a new state law that prohibits businesses from giving information on employees to federal authorities.

He said immigrants worried about raids should make sure they know their rights and carry on with their lives as usual.

“I imagine this isn’t the first time they don’t know what could happen tomorrow,” he said. “Like always, you have to continue on. You can’t live your life based on rumors.”

Like Pedraza, Lorena Robles, 42, was not much of a news junkie — until Trump was elected.

The post California and Trump administration square off in latest battles over immigration first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

 

The post California AG: ‘We will prosecute’ employers who cooperate with Federal Immigration Officials first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.