New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mimicked California Gov. Jerry Brown’s approach to immigration, pardoning 18 convicted illegal immigrants who faced deportation.
Cuomo, a Democrat, praised himself on Twitter for his compassion Thursday before linking to a New York Times article supporting the move.
Cuomo claimed the federal government is “tear[ing] families apart” with the Trump administration’s current immigration policy. He said he took the “critical step” to defend those who were unfairly targeted.
While the federal government continues to target immigrants and threatens to tear families apart with deportation, these actions take a critical step toward a more just, more fair and more compassionate New York. https://t.co/QK1lzhMgfg
— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 28, 2017
Brown, a Democrat, also has taken up the cause of defying federal immigration law in California by pardoning two men from Cambodia who were about to be deported. One of the men was convicted of felony joyriding in 2003 and sentenced to a year in prison, while the other was convicted of a felony weapons charge in 1995, Fox News reported.
Brown faced backlash in the media Wednesday for his sanctuary state policy from a man whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant in 2010. Don Rosenberg lost his son Drew Rosenberg when Roberto Galo from Honduras slammed into him with his car and continuously ran him over in an attempt to escape.
Galo had been stopped by the San Francisco police months earlier for driving in the wrong direction down a one-way street without a license. He was not arrested, and instead police cited and released him.
San Francisco recently was the center of a national debate on illegal immigration once again, after a jury found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty of the murder of Kate Steinle.
Zarate, in the country illegally multiple times, admitted to shooting Steinle but claimed it was an accident. He was found guilty only of felony possession of a weapon.
Brown signed a sanctuary state law in October, limiting the ability of local law enforcement to coordinate immigration efforts with the federal government. The law also prevents police officers from questioning or detaining people based on civil immigration violations.
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