The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Saturday blasting New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) for secretly pardoning last month a 52-year-old Laotian refugee from the Vietnam War era to help him evade deportation for the Christmas Eve 1988 deadly shooting of a man in a pool hall fight in Brooklyn:
“.@GovKathyHochul, your shameful secret is out. 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. If you are a convicted criminal alien, you should not have the privilege to be in this country. President Trump and @Sec_Noem will continue fighting to protect every American citizen and remove the worst of the worst from our nation.”
.@GovKathyHochul, your shameful secret is out.
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.
If you are a convicted criminal alien, you… pic.twitter.com/anXAXECvjg
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 16, 2025
The New York Times reported Hochul’s secret pardon on Friday (excerpt):
In early July, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York pardoned an immigrant from Laos to stave off his deportation, but unlike dozens of pardons she has granted before, the governor did not publicize this action.
The man Ms. Hochul pardoned, Somchith Vatthanavong, 52, had been convicted of manslaughter as a teenager after he admitted to fatally shooting a man in 1988 during a confrontation at a Brooklyn pool hall, arguing that he had acted in self-defense.
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.
But President Trump’s return to power heightened the likelihood that Mr. Vatthanavong would be deported because of his conviction 35 years earlier. So community groups and his wife and lawyers mounted a campaign to persuade the governor’s office — through petitions, meetings and phone calls — to pardon Mr. Vatthanavong, a move that could result in his deportation order being vacated.
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 Vatthanavong has faced deportation since serving a fourteen year sentence for the killing, but Laos had refused to take deportees from the U.S. But now with the Trump administration exerting pressure on nations like Laos, he would likely have been deported to his home country.
Hochul, who has been on a pardon spree to protect criminal immigrants facing deportation, released a statement Friday reported by the Times defending her pardon of the killer immigrant by invoking Christianity:
“One of the toughest calls a governor can make is when another person’s fate is in their hands. 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. And to those who would demonize them to score political points, I ask: Where is your compassion?”
The Times reported a statement by DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, “Mr. Vatthanavong “would be on a deportation flight to Laos” if not for Ms. Hochul’s intervention. “If you are a convicted criminal alien, you should not have the privilege to be in this country,” Ms. McLaughlin said.”
WRGB-TV reported statements by Vatthanavong and a group supporting his effort to stay in the U.S. (excerpt):
A plane carrying over 100 refugees targeted for deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) departed from Hawaii for Laos and Vietnam, leaving behind Somchith “Sammy” Vatthanavong, a 52-year-old Lao refugee who received a rare pardon from New York Governor Hochul. Vatthanavong, who came to the U.S. as a 7-year-old, was spared deportation after a years-long campaign by his family and community.
Vatthanavong said,
“I want to thank Mekong NYC, AALDEF, my family, my friends, and everyone who advocated for me. Without the community that rallied behind me, I would have been on that deportation flight to Southeast Asia today with over 100 others. I came to the U.S. as a 7-year-old boy, and Laos is no longer my home. The thought of being sent there, away from my wife, my two children, and the family who have stood by me through thick and thin, was terrifying. This pardon from Governor Hochul feels like being reborn. Everyone deserves a second chance, and my story is proof that when our communities fight together, we can protect each other.”
…Socheatta Meng, Executive Director at Mekong NYC said,
“This latest round of deportations is part of a broader and brutal attack on the Southeast Asian community, which includes over 15,000 people nationally who are vulnerable to deportation, many based on past convictions. Sammy’s recent pardon proves that community organizing works and that it can safeguard our communities against Trump’s racist anti-immigrant agenda. As we continue to anticipate more deportations and the ongoing separation of Southeast Asian families, we remain committed to organizing our community until all people are free and safe.”
AsAmNews reported they witheld news of Vatthanavong’s pardon until this week in order to protect him from deportation (excerpt):
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an 11th hour pardon for Somchith “Sammy” Vatthanavong, a 52-year-old Laotian man who came to the U.S. as a child at the age of 7.
AsAmNews became aware of the pardon by Hochul on July 3. We agreed to withhold that information to allow his attorneys from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund time to ensure that the threat of deportation was completely lifted.
As AsAmNews reported first on June 3 and then again on June 26, advocates from Mekong USA organized a phone and email campaign to Hochul to encourage her to pardon Vatthanavong.
Up until now, he had only been known publicly as “Sammy.” His father raised him and his siblings as a single parent after Sammy’s mother died in a refugee camp following the family’s escape from Laos.
His supporters say he has lived trouble free since they say he mistakenly shot and killed someone he thought had pulled out a gun. The then 15 year old served 14 years in prison for manslaughter following his conviction.
The post DHS Blasts NY Gov. Kathy Hochul for Pardoning Immigrant Convicted in Deadly Christmas Eve 1988 Shooting to Stop His Deportation appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.