News/Commentary

Hochul just pardoned 13 convicted criminals — including one guilty of manslaughter to shield them from deportation

August 18, 2025 | | Print Article

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has reportedly been quietly pardoning migrants, including one man convicted of manslaughter.

The Democrat governor pardoned Somchith Vatthanavong, 52, who entered the US illegally from Laos and fatally shot a man in 1988, which he said was in self-defense. Hochul revealed the pardon and others after a report in the New York Times that noted the pardons were meant to stave off deportations.

“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,'” the Times reported, noting that “unlike dozens of pardons she has granted before, the governor did not publicize this action.”

“Mr. Vatthanavong, who had legally entered the United States as a refugee when he was a child, fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War, served 14 years in prison before being released in 2003. He then built a life in New York, marrying and raising two children who are U.S. citizens,” according to the New York Times.

Community groups and Vatthanavong’s family mounted a campaign to urge Hochul to pardon him.

“Mr. Vatthanavong and his lawyers met with Ms. Hochul’s clemency panel. And they rallied support from a handful of officials, including the Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, the governor’s office said, and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, according to Mekong NYC,” the Times reported.

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“One of the toughest calls a governor can make is when another person’s fate is in their hands,” Hochul said in a statement last week. “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,” she continued. “And to those who would demonize them to score political points, I ask: Where is your compassion?”

The Department of Homeland Security ripped into the Democrat governor in a post on X.

“Rather than putting New Yorkers first, you’re protecting a criminal illegal alien KILLER with a rap sheet including convictions for manslaughter and criminal possession of a firearm,” the post read.

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Representative Elise Stefanik slammed the move as “shameful.”

“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,” the New York Republican said in a post on X.

Stefanik confronted the governor in June when she appeared before the House Oversight Committee.

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“There is no sanctuary in New York for people who commit crimes. New York is committed to cracking down on gang members and violent criminals, and State officials cooperate with ICE and CBP in many circumstances,” Hochul’s office declared in a memo before the governor’s testimony to Congress.

Frieda Powers
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