Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday offered clemency to 25 felons, including a Cambodian immigrant facing deportation, in a series of pardons and commutations issued before the Easter holiday.
The governor has been a critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, including condemning the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador last month without due process. Newsom’s pardon of Sithy Bin of Long Beach follows efforts by the governor and his predecessor, Jerry Brown, to use their clemency powers to help immigrants targeted for deportation.
Bin, a former member of the Crips with Attitude gang, was sentenced to 40 years to life in 2008 after he was convicted in Stanislaus County of shooting at the home of a rival gang member during a barbecue, injuring a bystander…