Governor Jerry Brown has pardoned an anti-ICE activist facing deportation who helped advance the effort to turn California into a so-called “sanctuary state.”
Phal Sok was among three Cambodian refugees with criminal records who recently had their past crimes absolved by the state’s top executive. Although Sok has been lawfully present in this country since his arrival in the early 1980s, his rap sheet included three felony convictions that made him a deportation target.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the pardons “wipe the crimes off the California Department of Justice and FBI books.”
Brown said Sok is currently under removal proceedings. However, the pardon could eliminate the federal government’s justification for deporting him.
MUST READ: I Earned My Freedom From Prison, Now I Face Deportation By @YouthJusticeLA Organizer Phal Sok #not1morehttps://t.co/KkOZe1bMnK pic.twitter.com/kNCTf3GnP4
— SV De-Bug (@svdebug) September 27, 2017
