DHS Slams Hochul Over Secret Pardon of Convicted Killer
The Department of Homeland Security is blasting New York Governor Kathy Hochul for quietly pardoning a convicted killer to block his deportation, accusing her of putting a violent criminal alien ahead of law-abiding citizens.
DHS fired off a statement on social media exposing the governor’s secret pardon:
.@GovKathyHochul, your shameful secret is out.
Rather than putting New Yorkers first, you’re protecting a criminal illegal alien KILLER with a rap sheet including convictions for manslaughter and criminal possession of a firearm.
If you are a convicted criminal alien, you… pic.twitter.com/anXAXECvjg
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 16, 2025
Rather than putting New Yorkers first, you’re protecting a criminal illegal alien KILLER with a rap sheet including convictions for manslaughter and criminal possession of a firearm.
If you are a convicted criminal alien, you should not have the privilege to be in this country. President Trump and @Sec_Noem will continue fighting to protect every American citizen and remove the worst of the worst from our nation.
According to the New York Times, Hochul signed the pardon on July 1 — the day before Vatthanavong’s immigration check-in, which his lawyers feared would lead to his detention and deportation.
On July 1 — the day before Mr. Vatthanavong had a mandatory immigration appointment that his lawyers believed would lead to his arrest — Ms. Hochul signed a certificate granting him an unconditional pardon, “including offering relief from removal.”
Vatthanavong’s criminal record stems from a deadly confrontation in Brooklyn in 1988, when he admitted to fatally shooting another man during a pool hall fight.
The man Ms. Hochul pardoned, Somchith Vatthanavong, 52, had been convicted of manslaughter as a teenager after he admitted to fatally shooting a man in 1988 during a confrontation at a Brooklyn pool hall, arguing that he had acted in self-defense.
Hochul’s office did not initially announce the pardon, unlike her past clemency decisions. Only after reporters pressed the issue did it come to light.
Ms. Hochul, a moderate Democrat who typically issues pardons in batches on a rolling basis, did not issue a news release when she pardoned Mr. Vatthanavong six weeks ago, as she had for many of the 94 people she had previously pardoned or whose sentences she had commuted.
A DHS spokeswoman told the paper bluntly that Vatthanavong would already be on a deportation flight “if not for Ms. Hochul’s intervention.” Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) condemned the move as “shameful” and evidence that the governor is “putting criminals and illegals first instead of law-abiding New Yorkers.”
Hochul, for her part, defended the pardon in religious terms:
“One of the toughest calls a governor can make is when another person’s fate is in their hands,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement on Friday. “Unless I believe someone poses a danger, I follow what the Bible tells us: ‘Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you.’”
The contrast could not be sharper: President Trump and DHS have vowed to deport criminal aliens and protect Americans, while Hochul is using her pardon power to protect them, and doing it behind closed doors.

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