Pubdate: Wed, 5 May 2010
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A30
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298

A REMINDER ABOUT AMERICAN VALUES

Gov. David Paterson of New York made a brave -- and startling -- move 
on Monday to create a board to consider pardons for immigrant New 
Yorkers who are on a fast-track to deportation because of old or 
minor criminal convictions. He said he wanted to inject fairness into 
an "embarrassingly and wrongly inflexible" system that expels 
immigrants without discretion, without considering the circumstances 
of a person's life or family, or even holding hearings to consider 
the possibility that deportation might be unwise or unjust.

Mr. Paterson's decision is a response to the government's aggressive 
enforcement of immigration laws that have greatly broadened the 
definition of "aggravated felonies" for which noncitizens are subject 
to mandatory deportation.

The category used to apply just to serious crimes like murder and 
drug trafficking, but it has come to include a vast array of 
nonviolent, even trivial misdemeanors. Under the law, minor drug 
offenses or even shoplifting can count as "aggravated felonies," and 
this stringent view can be applied retroactively. Immigrants can be 
deported for decades-old convictions of crimes that were not 
"aggravated felonies" back then.

The harsh laws have been coupled with harsh enforcement; the Obama 
administration has arrested and deported tens of thousands of legal 
immigrants with a zeal that has gone to extremes.

In one case, now before the United States Supreme Court, the 
government maintains that a Texas man's two misdemeanor convictions 
- -- one for less than two ounces of marijuana and one for a single 
Xanax pill without a prescription -- make him a "drug trafficker" 
subject to mandatory deportation with no right to a hearing in which 
a judge could consider the absurdity of the case.

Mr. Paterson has shown courage and common sense at a time when the 
national debate about immigration shows little of either. His move 
was unconnected to the radicalism in Arizona, which just passed a law 
making criminals of every undocumented person within its borders, and 
greatly empowering the police to arrest people they suspect are here illegally.

But it inevitably calls to mind the bad example of Arizona. "In New 
York, we believe in rehabilitation," Mr. Paterson said, adding that 
his five-member board would consider pardons judiciously, 
distinguishing minor offenders from dangerous criminals. His action 
repudiates the growing belief that only tougher and more rigid 
enforcement should be applied to all immigrants who run afoul of the 
law, with expulsion as the first and last goal.

This is not how the United States, in its best moments, deals with 
newcomers. We're grateful for the reminder from the governor of New York. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake