Judges: DUANE WOODARD, Attorney General
Filed Date: 4/24/1984
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Honorable Richard D. Lamm Governor 136 State Capitol Building Denver, CO 80203
Dear Governor Lamm:
I write in response to your February 9, 1984 inquiry about your authority to conditionally pardon a foreign national subject to detainer for deportation by the United States government.
QUESTION PRESENTED AND CONCLUSION
You ask specifically:
Can the Governor conditionally pardon a foreign national subject to detainer by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service for deportation and provide that the pardon shall be revoked if the person pardoned illegally returns to the United States?
My conclusion is "yes."
ANALYSIS
The Governor has the power to conditionally pardon individuals as long as the conditions imposed are not illegal, immoral, or impossible to perform. (See Attorney General's Opinion of December 23, 1983). A condition requiring a convicted foreign national to remove himself from the United States is neither immoral nor impossible to perform but is illegal because it fails to recognize the primacy of federal authority in this area (see Attorney General's Opinion of December 23, 1983). This obstacle is removed when pardons are conditioned upon deportation by the federal government and revoked upon a showing of anillegal return to the United States.
Conditional pardons of this kind are consistent with federal deportation statutes. A convicted foreign national may not be physically deported as long as there is actual prison time to be served on his sentence.
If a foreign national were to return to the United States contrary to a condition of pardon, his pardon could be revoked.See, e.g., Pope v. Chew,
SUMMARY
A pardon may be conditioned upon the exclusion of a convicted foreign national from the United States through deportation by federal authorities and it may be revoked upon an illegal return to the United States.
Very truly yours,
DUANE WOODARD Attorney General
PARDONS EXECUTIVE BRANCH GOVERNOR FEDERAL PREEMPTION IMMIGRATION
Sections
GOVERNOR, OFFICE OF
A pardon may be conditioned upon the exclusion of a convicted foreign national from the United States through deportation by federal authorities and it may be revoked upon an illegal return to the United States.
Richard S. Pope v. Charles P. Chew, Chairman, Virginia ... , 521 F.2d 400 ( 1975 )
Louis Joseph Daoust v. United States , 310 F.2d 82 ( 1962 )
Gottfried v. Cronin , 192 Colo. 25 ( 1976 )
Rodolfo Carreon-Hernandez v. Edward H. Levi, Attorney ... , 543 F.2d 637 ( 1976 )
Ian Paul Briscoe v. United States , 391 F.2d 984 ( 1968 )
Taylor v. Foster , 205 Ga. 36 ( 1949 )
Commonwealth Ex Rel. Rushkowski v. Burke , 171 Pa. Super. 1 ( 1952 )