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.

Immigrations 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 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.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 09/14/26: Jobs and Manufacturing Are on the Ballot
• 09/01/26: How to Tackle Domestic Extremists' Foreign Enablers
• 08/25/26: Why Hasan Piker Mocks a Murdered Man
• 08/18/26: Dems' Southern Strategy
• 08/11/26: Homebuyers Deserve the Facts About Crime and Schools
• 08/04/26: Diversity, Equity, and Confabulation
• 07/28/26: Democratic Socialists of America vs. John Adams
• 07/21/26: Why Dems Can't Do Better Than Kamala Harris in 2028
• 07/14/26: Prescription for a Socialist Workforce
• 07/07/26: The Smithsonian's Patriotism Problem
• 06/30/26: Bill Maher, Liberalism's Apostate
• 06/23/26: Can Anyone Govern Britain -- or America?
• 06/16/26: University Professors Against Academic Freedom
• 06/09/26: Pope Leo Courts the Global Left
• 06/02/26: A Mass-Graves Myth Is Media Malpractice
• 05/28/26: Dems Face Midterm Disappointment
• 05/26/26: Dems Face Midterm Disappointment
• 05/12/26: Dems finally come clean 'bout their radical design
• 05/05/26: The Silenced Generation
• 04/28/26:Colleges Are Making Political Violence Worse
• 04/21/26:Immigration Amnesty by Any Other Name
• 04/14/26: A New Extreme in Gerrymandering
• 04/07/26: A New Extreme in Gerrymandering
• 03/17/26: Why Are Senate Dems Making Air Travel Worse?
• 03/10/26: Cuba Should Accept Trump's 'Friendly Takeover'
• 03/03/26: Immigration Enforcement Saves Lives
• 02/24/26: How a Party Offends Its Voters
• 02/17/26: Why Are Anti-ICE Activists Building Borders?
• 02/10/26: A Japanese Lesson for Troubled Britain
• 02/03/26: The Trump Coalition Wins But the GOP Brand Doesn't
• 01/27/26: Canada Should Warm to Trump's Arctic Plans
• 01/20/26: From Rock to Tech, Talent Flees Taxes
• 01/13/26: Woman Who Weaponized Car Against I.C.E Endangered Her Life -- and Yours
• 01/06/26: Tim Walz Personifies Dems' Decline
• 12/30/25: Harvard Says Yes to Discrimination, No to Western Civ
• 12/23/25: JD Vance Gets America's Creed and Heritage Right
• 12/16/25: Trump's Inflation Trap
• 12/09/25: Biden's Immigration Debacle Is the Media's, Too
• 12/02/25: 'Iryna's Law' and the Bad Judges Who Make It Necessary
• 11/26/25: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Exit Is a Warning to Republicans
• 11/19/25: Trump Hasn't Lost Hispanics (Yet)
• 11/11/25: Trump's Tariffs on Trial
• 10/28/25: MAGA Makes Allies Great Again
• 10/21/25: How To Make the AmericaS Great Again
• 10/16/25: Columbus Day Celebrates Our Civilization
• 10/09/25: Why Sharpies Are Made in America Again
• 09/30/25: Assata Shakur and Other Parents of Political Violence
• 09/09/25: Who's Accountable for Autopen Pardons?
• 09/02/25: Gender dysphoria is a mental-illness, NOT an all-encompassing delusion
• 08/26/25: Trump's Industrial Policy Is Realism, Not Socialism
• 08/19/25: Is Gavin Newsom the Dems' Answer to Trump?
• 08/12/25: Just Say No to More Marijuana
• 08/05/25: Will the GOP Make Libs Generous Again?
• 07/30/25: Trump's Trade Lesson for Economists (and the World)
• 07/22/25: Whose Politics Canceled Stephen Colbert?
• 07/08/25: A Big Beautiful Test of GOP Principles and Discipline
• 07/01/25: Dems Need Populism, But Not Zohran's Sort
• 06/25/25: Secure Borders Win Wars Like This One
• 06/18/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
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• 06/04/25: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
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• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
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• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
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• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
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