This website provides in-depth information about how to seek a pardon from the Governor in Washington State. 

In these pages, you will find:

• Backgound on immigration laws relating to deportation issues, including how they sometimes unfairly affect certain immigrants.  
    

• A how-to guide for those facing deportation based on a past criminal conviction.  For this class of individuals, a pardon from the Governor is often their last and only hope in staying in the United States.

• Links to other related information and resources for how you can get involved.

Many Uch, 31, walks past a mural of an American flag on the side of a Cambodian grocery store in White Center, on Seattle's southside.  Click here to read about Many's story. 

Many is one of the three immigrants featured in the Emmy nominated documentary, "Sentenced Home" by Seattle filmmaker Nicole Newnham. 

www.isett.com   

Joe is a composite of character whose story is a familiar one for many.  Joe's family fled Cambodia in 1979 when he was 3 years old, escaping the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge.  His family sought asylum in the United States and settled in Seattle.  

Joe grew up in a rough area where being in a gang is the norm.  One day, riding along with his friends a police officer pulls them over for speeding.  They allow him to search the trunk where the officer finds a backpack with a gun in it.  The gun turns out to be stolen. 

Joe is arrested and charged with Possession of a Stolen Firearm.  He pleads guilty in order to receive a reduced sentence of one year and one day in prison.  At this time, there's no immigration consequences for him. 

Joe completes his sentence, out early for good behavior.  Shameful and remorseful, Joe gets his act together, gets his GED and his Associates degree.  He goes on to land a job at Boeing, gets married and has three kids.  He volunteers every other week at the Boys and Girls Club, helping to keep kids away from gangs.   

Coming back from a trip to Whistler, B.C., Joe is questioned by an Immigration official at the border who waives him over to the checkpoint for additional questioning.  The officials run Joe's information and his conviction shows up.  Based on the conviction, 10 years ago, Joe is ordered  to be deported. 

Single mother ordered deported for theft of $320 for crime committed 13 years ago.

Here's the real life story of Kathryn Ingleson.  She came to the U.S. when she was 7 years old from England.  Her parents never became U.S. citizens and neither did she.  When Kathryn was 18, she was a single mother.  She used somone else's credit card to buy a Christmas tree and some presents for her 5-year old son that totaled $320. 

After she was caught, she confessed and paid the money back.  The public defender advised her that if she pled guilty to felony credit card theft there would be no jail time.  That was 13 years ago.  It was also the first and only time Kathryn had ever been in trouble with the law. 

In 2003, returning back from a trip to England to visit her grandmother, Kathryn was taken by immigration officials to a separate room at the airport.  Because of her crime all those years ago, she was red-flagged for deportation.  Her scheduled date for deportation is August 14, 2008.  She has two children now, 9 and 17, that she would be forced to leave behind. 

See complete story at http://www.wavy.com/global/story.asp?s=8438977. 

UPDATE: Gov. Tim Kaine grants Kathryn a pardon