ALBANY, N.Y. _ Looking to beat the clock, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday pardoned an immigrant man hours before his deportation hearing.
Harveys Gomez, 39 who lives in the Bronx, has been in federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October.
Gomez was busted in 2009 on drug sale charges and spent six months in jail. He was also given five years probation, which he completed.
He came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republican when he was 8.
"Harveys Gomez has paid his debt to society for a crime committed nearly a decade ago and poses no threat to society. America is his home _ he has a family here, works here and has lived here for over 30 years," Cuomo said.
Cuomo's office said Gomez, 39, is openly gay, HIV positive, and a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
Including Gomez, Cuomo has pardoned 34 people, including seven in July, in hopes of keeping them from being deported. Most have come since the Trump administration has gotten more aggressive about deporting people, Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said.
The idea is to erase the criminal record that has them facing deportation. But the moves don't guarantee the feds still won't boot the person from the country.
"New York will always fight to protect the immigrant community from the federal government's targeted attacks on our values," Cuomo said. "We will not stand by as President Trump wages a war against everything we stand for."
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