Governor’s pardons of immigrants irk Trump
LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump blasted California Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday for his pardon of five ex-convicts facing deportation, including two who fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia with their families four decades ago.
In a tweet , Trump referred to Brown as “Moonbeam,” referencing a nickname a newspaper columnist coined for him in the 1970s. Trump then listed the ex-convicts’ crimes before they were pardoned Friday. They include misdemeanor domestic violence, drug possession, and kidnapping and robbery.
Trump wrote: “Is this really what the great people of California want?”
A spokesman for Brown responded to a request for comment with more information about the five men but did not directly address Trump’s criticism.
In a news release about the pardons on Friday, the governor’s office said that “those granted pardons all completed their sentences years ago and the majority were convicted of drugrelated or other nonviolent crimes.”
“Pardons are not granted unless they are earned,” the governor’s office said.
Brown’s pardons don’t automatically stop deportation proceedings but eliminate the convictions on which authorities based their deportation.
Trump has been criticized for his own pardon, that of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted last year of a misdemeanor contempt charge for flouting the courts in carrying out his signature immigration patrols.
Trump’s pardon spared Arpaio from a possible jail sentence.