Thread by @ScottHech

Meet Rodrigue Popo. Husband, father, grandfather, New Yorker. Green card holder for last 40 yrs. Last arrest 26 years ago. Final deportation hearing to Haiti scheduled for 5 days after Trump leaves office. Only hope is a pardon from @NYGovCuomo. Help here:chng.it/z2yMQfvK

Rodrigue Popo has been a New Yorker since he was a child, but he faces deportation & separation from his family based on 26 year-old convictions. Are you the same person you were in 1993? Neither is Mr. Popo, who got treatment, served his time, & totally turned his life around.

After a traumatic childhood in Haiti and the U.S., Mr. Popo struggled with substance use, resulting in robbery convictions. He makes no excuses for his past, & is extremely remorseful. He's expressed his remorse through fatherhood, mentorship, & contributing to his community.

Mr. Popo focused on his family and his job. But his life was turned upside down when ICE traumatically arrested him in front of his then 7 y/o son. He was detained for months and the threat of deportation has been hanging over him ever since. For years and years.

Over the next 4-5 months, as the Trump Administration gives way to the early Biden Administration, thousands of people like Mr. Popo have deportation hearings across the country, many of which involve old criminal records.

From his extraordinary legal team at Brooklyn Defender Services (@BklynDefender): "Mr. Popo is not alone. Despite making up 7.2% of the "noncitizen" population in the US, more than 20% of people facing deportation based on past convictions are Black." vox.com/identities/201…

Even if deportation hearings like Mr. Popo's are not scheduled before Trump leaves office, & even assuming Joe Biden does a hard progressive turn on immigration, countless people will still be deported & in many cases sent back to countries they barely know.

State governors can nullify the uncertainty of pending deportation hearings by granting pardons to people who face deportation solely because of criminal records. Governor Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) could be a leader on this front. Mr. Popo already has a lot of support in NY leadership.

Thank you to the big chorus of supporters, including the
@BPHACaucus, NY Senate Codes Committee Chair
@jamaaltbailey, NY Assembly Codes Committee Chair
@assemblymanjoe, NY Senate Correction Chair
@LuisSepulvedaNY, NY Assembly Correction Chair
@DavidWeprin, ... more:

...NY Senate Judiciary Chair @bradhoylman, his former Assembly rep @NNickPerry, @MichaelleSolage, NYC Council Immigration Chair @cmenchaca, Elizabeth Gaynes of @OsborneNY, his teachers and mentors in prison,
@ImmDefense, @thenyic, @Skylerbadenoch, & of course his loving family.

TAKE ACTION: Rodrigue Popo, a husband, father, grandfather & New Yorker, is at risk of being separated from his family & deported amid COVID-19 to Haiti—a country he left +40 years ago. @NYGovCuomo can help stop it but he needs to hear from YOU.

Sign now:change.org/p/andrew-m-cuo…