A Brooklyn Park man who was detained by immigration officers during Operation Metro Surge was pardoned by state officials in an emergency meeting Monday, offering him a chance of reuniting with his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At \u201cRicky\u201d Chandee, 52, is a Lao refugee, a father and a longtime public servant, Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement issued Monday after the pardon. Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellision and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson from the Minnesota Board of Pardons reviewed Chandee\u2019s case and unanimously voted to reverse his second-degree assault conviction that prompted his immigration detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government says they\u2019re targeting the \u2018worst of the worst,\u2019 but instead they\u2019re tearing a father and public servant away from his family over a mistake from more than 30 years ago,\u201d read Walz\u2019s statement. \u201cThis is not about public safety; it\u2019s a campaign of retribution that uses heavy-handed tactics to target people who have already paid their debt and built their lives here in Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandee applied for a pardon in early January; he was detained later that month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. He has been in federal custody the past few months, and remained in custody as of Monday afternoon. It\u2019s unclear whether he will be released from federal custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chandee, who was born in Laos, received a final order of deportation when he was 18 for his second-degree assault conviction. He immigrated to the United States as a refugee after fleeing the Vietnam War, and could not be deported until now because Laos historically denied U.S. deportees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Laos shifted its stance early last year, and began accepting deportees from the United States due to pressure from President Donald Trump\u2019s administration. Chandee is one of many Southeast Asian refugees, including several Hmong Minnesotans, who have been deported or face deportation over previous criminal convictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chandee worked in engineering for the city of Minneapolis for nearly three decades. He is married to Tina Huynh-Chandee, and has a son currently serving in the United States Air Force. Chandee has also been \u201ccontributing to his community without further incident,\u201d according to Walz\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n
His family members, co-workers and other supporters testified last week at his first hearing in front of the Clemency Review Commission. Huynh-Chandee, Chandee\u2019s wife, has written posts on Facebook updating his case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are praying for strength, fairness, and compassion. And we are still fighting every single day to bring him back home where he belongs,\u201d read Huynh-Chandee\u2019s April 26 Facebook post. \u201cThank you to everyone who has been lifting us up with your love, prayers, and support. We feel it deeply, and we truly need it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The commission, which reviews pardon applications and makes recommendations to the Minnesota Board of Pardons, unanimously endorsed Chandee\u2019s request on May 1. With his deportation expected to happen this week, Walz, Hudson and Ellison met in an emergency meeting Monday morning to review Chandee\u2019s case and unanimously approved his pardon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Linus Chan, Chandee\u2019s attorney, said the pardon is an \u201cimportant step\u201d in the right direction, but it does not result in Chandee\u2019s automatic release of custody, or remove his final order of deportation. The next step is to see whether a federal judge will grant him a temporary or permanent stay that would prevent federal officials from putting Chandee on a deportation flight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katelyn Vue is a Report for America corps member.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn Park man who was detained by immigration officers during Operation Metro Surge was pardoned by state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,86781,9,24,63,47819,86782],"class_list":["post-220260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-gov-tim-walz","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-operation-metro-surge","tag-ricky-chandee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}