Flashback to 2010: Prison Advocate Tam Phan Seeking Pardon from NY Governor

According to Democracy Now, when he was 6, Tam Phan arrived in the United States from Vietnam. He later became involved with a gang and spent 17 years in prison.

After turning his life around, he is now pursuing a master’s degree in urban policy and administration at Brooklyn College and is working at the Fortune Society, a nonprofit organization that helps ex-convicts reenter society.

Yet Tam Phan has been given a final deportation order, and his only recourse is a pardon from New York Gov. David Paterson.

He'll be deported back to Vietnam, yet has never been to the country and cannot communicate in Vietnamese.

It's only a matter of time before he may be deported if Gov Paterson does not pardon him.

Tam calls America home, having been raised in Brooklyn.

IMO it is precisely due to anti-immigration lobbyists pressuring mayors of major cities to pass anti-immigrant law that rehabilitated ex-criminals such as Phan face deportation.

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Reference:

Prison Advocate Tam Phan Seeking Pardon from NY Governor; Faces Deportation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiHYNK6ZRK4

The Fortune Society: http://www.fortunesociety.org/