August 28, 2025
ALBANY, NY — Today, 70+ advocacy organizations that work in pursuit of justice for immigrants, for those affected by mass incarceration and criminalization, for survivors of gender-based violence, for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, for workers and labor rights, together applauded Governor Hochul for granting pardons to thirteen New Yorkers and called on her to use her clemency power in times of urgency.
The letter expressed gratitude for the Governor granting a pardon to beloved community member Sammy Vatthanavong, who faced deportation and is now able to remain at home with his family. The groups further highlighted the Governor’s comments on the pardons: “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 organizations noted that the Governor had committed to dedicating resources to grant clemency on a rolling basis, including where this an “urgent need,” and said, “[w]e are now in a moment of daily abduction of immigrant New Yorkers by masked federal agents who funnel our community members to prolonged detention and … deportation without due process including to third countries and far away prisons known for egregious human rights violations. We also are watching the continued ongoing humanitarian crisis in the New York state prison system, where medical neglect and denial of basic dignity must be addressed with urgency.”
The organizations urged the Governor to use her pen to make all the difference for New Yorkers seeking both pardons and commutations: “[w]e implore you to see in these New Yorkers what others will not: their dignity and humanity.”
View the letter and see the list of signatories from across New York state here.
“We are thrilled Sammy can now remain safely home in New York, after years of community-led organizing to secure this transformational pardon. But the work doesn’t stop here,” said Socheatta Meng, Executive Director at Mekong NYC. “Especially under Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda – which includes detaining young children, removing individuals to third countries they have no ties to, and deporting people for exercising their right to free speech – we need to draw upon every tool available to protect all immigrant New Yorkers. This includes clemency granted by the Governor; as this crisis continues to unfold, we call on the Governor to keep doing the just and right thing – pardon and commute all New Yorkers seeking clemency so they can finally find safety and justice.”
Jose Saldana, Director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign (RAPP), said: “Governor Hochul’s pardon of Sammy and the other twelve individuals was, without question, the right thing to do. Our prison system already delivers excessive punishment, often with no regard for people’s transformations and good works, and everyone loses when our government adds permanent exile and family separation on top of that. At the same time, the Governor must do much more and use her clemency powers to end the humanitarian crisis in her prisons and protect New Yorkers from Trump’s mass deportation machine.”
“This letter represents an incredibly broad coalition of labor unions, domestic and gender-based violence organizations, LGBTQ+ organizations and immigrant and civil rights organizations who recognize that we are safer and stronger as New Yorkers when we see the humanity in our neighbors and keep families and communities together,” said Yasmine Farhang, Executive Director of the Immigrant Defense Project. “The Governor’s commitment to considering urgent need in her use of clemency power has never been more critical. We are incredibly grateful for her recent pardon grants, including of Sammy Vatthanavong, and her recognition that clemency is a way to address harsh immigration consequences that never expire. Clemency is likewise a way to address the unfairness of excessive sentences, and in this moment of urgency we urge the Governor to increase the use of her clemency power now.”
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Clemency is a powerful but underused tool that offers recipients the second chance that is routinely denied by the overly punitive criminal and immigration systems. Pardons and commutations are a means for the Governor to address the unfairness of excessive sentences as well as harsh immigration consequences that never expire.
The Clemency Coalition of New York is a coalition of grassroots and advocacy organizations who share a commitment to ending deportations, mass incarceration and other violence caused by the intersecting immigration and criminal legal systems for immigrant communities and communities of color. The Coalition sees the clemency process as a powerful vehicle that can move us towards both short and long term changes by: protecting our immigrant and refugee community members against deportations; reducing prison sentences for our incarcerated community members; and mobilizing our people in demanding safety, justice, and accountability.
The Coalition’s steering committee members are New York-based organizations including Mekong NYC, the Immigrant Defense Project, Freedom to Thrive, Southeast Asian Defense Project, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
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