NEWSOM PARDONS TWO FIREFIGHTERS

Inmates who battled California wildfires faced deportation

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday pardoned more than a dozen people, including two inmate firefighters who faced deportation, and commuted the sentences of three people who were convicted of killings where they didn’t pull the trigger.

Newsom announced pardons for 14 people, including two from San Diego County, commuted sentences for 13 others and granted medical reprieves for eight state prisoners, most of them in their 60s or 70s, who are considered to be at high medical risk.

Those pardoned included Kao Ta Saelee and Bounchan Keola, who were born in Laos but came to the U.S. as young children. Each spent more than two decades in prison for crimes committed when they were teenagers: Saelee committed three armed convenience store robberies and Keola killed one person and wounded two others in gangrelated drive-by shootings.

Both helped fight devastating California wildfires and Keola suffered a serious neck injury when a tree fell on him last fall. After being released from prison, however, they were eligible for deportation and each spent months in federal detention facilities.

Newsom said each man has demonstrated that he is living “an upright life” and both presented evidence that because of their convictions, they faced deportation and permanent separation from their families in California, Newsom said.

The pardons likely mean the men won’t face further threat of deportation and can regain their status as legal permanent residents.

“Being a Californian means believing that people can turn their lives around and deserve second chances but also that we are tied together and owe a duty to serve one another,” Keola said in a statement issued by the Asian Law Caucus, which represented him. “I have tried my best to earn that second chance and am thankful that the governor recognized that with a pardon today.”

“I cannot express how grateful I am to have received a pardon and to finally be safe from the threat of deportation and permanent separation from my family,“said a statement from Saelee, who spent nearly a year in federal detention in Louisiana before being freed last week. “California is the only home I have ever known.“

A bill in the state Legislature would prohibit any state or local agency from aiding in immigration enforcement, including arrests, detentions and deportations. Courts also would be barred from using immigration status as a factor in denying probation.

Two men with ties to San Diego County also were pardoned: Dan Dogan, who was convicted of selling or transporting marijuana in 1998, and Paul Schoch, who was convicted of transporting methamphetamine for sale in 1987.