A REMINDER ABOUT AMERICAN VALUES

Gov. David Paterson of New York made a brave -- and startling -- move
on Monday to create a board to consider pardons for immigrant New
Yorkers who are on a fast-track to deportation because of old or
minor criminal convictions. He said he wanted to inject fairness into
an "embarrassingly and wrongly inflexible" system that expels
immigrants without discretion, without considering the circumstances
of a person's life or family, or even holding hearings to consider
the possibility that deportation might be unwise or unjust.

Mr. Paterson's decision is a response to the government's aggressive
enforcement of immigration laws that have greatly broadened the
definition of "aggravated felonies" for which noncitizens are subject
to mandatory deportation.

The category used to apply just to serious crimes like murder and
drug trafficking, but it has come to include a vast array of
nonviolent, even trivial misdemeanors. Under the law, minor drug
offenses or even shoplifting can count as "aggravated felonies," and
this stringent view can be applied retroactively. Immigrants can be
deported for decades-old convictions of crimes that were not
"aggravated felonies" back then.

The harsh laws have been coupled with harsh enforcement; the Obama
administration has arrested and deported tens of thousands of legal
immigrants with a zeal that has gone to extremes.

In one case, now before the United States Supreme Court, the
government maintains that a Texas man's two misdemeanor convictions
- -- one for less than two ounces of marijuana and one for a single
Xanax pill without a prescription -- make him a "drug trafficker"
subject to mandatory deportation with no right to a hearing in which
a judge could consider the absurdity of the case.

Mr. Paterson has shown courage and common sense at a time when the
national debate about immigration shows little of either. His move
was unconnected to the radicalism in Arizona, which just passed a law
making criminals of every undocumented person within its borders, and
greatly empowering the police to arrest people they suspect are here illegally.

But it inevitably calls to mind the bad example of Arizona. "In New
York, we believe in rehabilitation," Mr. Paterson said, adding that
his five-member board would consider pardons judiciously,
distinguishing minor offenders from dangerous criminals. His action
repudiates the growing belief that only tougher and more rigid
enforcement should be applied to all immigrants who run afoul of the
law, with expulsion as the first and last goal.

This is not how the United States, in its best moments, deals with
newcomers. We're grateful for the reminder from the governor of New York.