On Monday, Governor Paterson announced that New York State would create a five member panel that would review and pardon immigrants who had minor or old convictions. This step is great news and may potentially help many immigrants who fear they may be removed from the United States because of relatively minor criminal offenses that were committed decades ago.
Under current immigration law, long time lawful permanent residents in the United States face removal for relatively minor crimes like shoplifting – even if those crimes occurred decades ago. This panel will offer immigrants the chance of having the conviction removed from the immigrant’s records.
Whether the panel will actually be created, and if it will remain intake once Governor Paterson’s term ends, remains to be seen.