The Legal Aid Society announced that its attorneys, working with pro-bono lawyers from Hughes, Hubbard and Reed, secured a pardon for Lesly Parfait, a client who faced imminent deportation for a non-violent, sixteen-year-old conviction.

Mr. Parfait, who was brought to the United States in 1975 at the age of five and became a legal permanent resident in 1995, is facing mandatory deportation to Haiti based on a single, 17-year-old third-degree robbery conviction, a non-violent crime, committed during a difficult time when his family was facing dire circumstances.

The Department of Homeland Security cites this sole robbery conviction as the basis for Mr. Parfait’s deportation. A pardon from Governor Hochul mitigates the harsh and inflexible impact of federal immigration law and will prevent Mr. Parfait’s separation from his six children and seven grandchildren, who are all U.S. citizens.

“Lesly Parfait should have never languished in limbo for this long, but we’re happy that Governor Hochul used her pardon powers to extend this critical relief to our client, which will allow him to remain in the United States with his family and community,” said Ted Hausman, supervising attorney with the Criminal Appeals Bureau at The Legal Aid Society. “We hope that this is only the beginning, and that the many New Yorkers who have commutation or pardons pending with the Governor receive the same deserved outcome.”