Blue State Pardons Illegal Immigrant With Rap Sheet To Block Deportation Efforts
The Minnesota Board of Pardons — which includes Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison — voted unanimously to pardon an illegal immigrant from Laos with three assault convictions, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
At Xayasounethone Chandee was convicted of assault in 1992, and an immigration judge ordered his deportation in 1995, DHS said. Chandee also had a conviction from 2008 for two felony counts of aggravated assault with a weapon, according to the agency.
Chandee entered the country as a Green Card holder when he was a minor. He was later stripped of his immigration status due to his criminal convictions, DHS said.
The board called an emergency meeting Monday after learning that the Trump administration could deport Chandee this week, according to Minnesota Public Radio.
DHS called the board’s decision “absolute insanity,” adding that it could foil its plans to deport him.
“Minnesota’s sanctuary politicians’ pardon took away this violent thug’s qualifying convictions that made him removable from the U.S.,” Acting Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement on Thursday.
Chandee applied for a pardon shortly before federal immigration agents arrested him in January, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
The Clemency Review Commission, which recommends clemency decisions to the pardon board, voted 6-0 in favor of Chandee’s pardon, the outlet reported. The board wasn’t scheduled to meet until June, but moved up the meeting after learning that Chandee could be deported within days.
“There is nothing in this application, or nothing in the facts before us that would suggest that Mr. Chandee is a danger to the public in any way, shape or form,” Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, who sits on the board, said of the pardon. “He has a lot of family support, which is obviously very important, and he’s had that support over the last 29 years.”
A federal appeals court in Louisiana paused Chandee’s deportation for 14 days after his attorney filed a request last week, according to Minnesota Public Radio. The federal government is likely to challenge Chandee’s pardon, his attorney, Linus Chan, said.
Chan also argued that the 2008 conviction never happened, the outlet reported. There was also no mention of it in his clemency application.
“There is no such conviction, and I am reaching out to DHS about where this information is coming from,” Chan said.
The commission recommended clemency for all applicants, except one, who were at risk of deportation, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
