The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking direct aim at New York Gov. Kathy Hochul after revelations that she quietly pardoned a convicted killer in order to shield him from deportation.
The decision has triggered outrage from federal officials, Republicans, and crime victims’ advocates who accuse the Democratic governor of putting the interests of criminal migrants ahead of her own constituents.
“@GovKathyHochul, your shameful secret is out,” DHS declared in a social media post on X. “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.”
The man at the center of the storm is Somchith Vatthanavong, 52, who entered the United States from Laos as a refugee child in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. In 1988, he fatally shot a man during a pool hall confrontation in Brooklyn. He claimed self-defense, but was convicted of manslaughter and criminal possession of a firearm. Vatthanavong ultimately served 14 years behind bars before being released in 2003.
For the past two decades, he has lived in New York with his wife and two children, both U.S. citizens. Still, his record meant he was facing almost certain deportation once he appeared for a mandatory immigration hearing last month.
According to The New York Times, Hochul signed a full, unconditional pardon on July 1 — just one day before that hearing, which Vatthanavong’s lawyers feared would end with him in ICE custody. Unlike dozens of other pardons Hochul has issued, the governor never announced this one. It only became public after the Times uncovered it.
“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 paper reported.
Community groups such as Mekong NYC rallied around Vatthanavong, pressing Hochul to act. His lawyers argued he had rebuilt his life, posed no threat, and would face deportation to a country he no longer knew. Hochul’s office confirmed that her clemency panel reviewed the case, and that she had received appeals from figures such as Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor.
In defending her decision, Hochul framed the pardon as an act of compassion and Christian forgiveness. “One of the toughest calls a governor can make is when another person’s fate is in their hands,” she said in a statement. “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,” Hochul continued. “And to those who would demonize them to score political points, I ask: Where is your compassion?”
Her words have done little to quiet the backlash. DHS doubled down, insisting that “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.”
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) blasted Hochul’s pardon as “shameful” and accused the governor of betraying the public trust. “Her dangerous secret pardon of this violent criminal illegal who should have been deported 35 years ago after his conviction is just another example of her putting criminals and illegals first instead of law-abiding New Yorkers,” Stefanik said in a post on X.