NYC Immigrant Facing Deportation Gets Pardon From Cuomo

THE BRONX, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday pardoned a Bronx man convicted of a drug crime years ago, a move the governor's office said could help him stave off deportation. Harveys Gomez, 39, faced removal to the Dominican Republic at a Tuesday hearing even though he has no family there who can support him, the governor's office said.

"Harveys Gomez has paid his debt to society for a crime committed nearly a decade ago and poses no threat to society," Cuomo, a Democrat, said in a statement. "America is his home — he has a family here, works here and has lived here for over 30 years."

Now a legal permanent resident, Gomez came to the U.S. when he was just 8 years old, Cuomo's office said. He was convicted of criminal sale of controlled substance almost a decade ago but has completed probation, according to the governor's office.

Gomez, who is openly gay and HIV positive, has nonetheless been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October facing deportation, Cuomo's office said.

Cuomo's pardon could protect Gomez from deportation if his removal is based on his state conviction, the governor's office said. It also lets him argue that he's eligible for certain kinds of immigration relief that the conviction would have precluded, Cuomo's office said.

ICE acknowledged that Gomez entered the U.S. legally in 1988, but said he is "amenable to removal proceedings" pursuant to his 2012 conviction. "He is currently in ICE custody, and his immigration case is ongoing," ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow said Tuesday.

Cuomo has used pardons to protect immigrants from deportation three other times. The most recent was in July, when seven people got pardons for prior "minor" convictions.

The governor once again slammed President Donald Trump's aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.

"New York will always fight to protect the immigrant community from the federal government's targeted attacks on our values," Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday. "We will not stand by as President Trump wages a war against everything we stand for."

(Lead image: Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seen in March 2018. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)