We are organizations dedicated to immigrant rights and criminal justice, including organizations with special expertise on the intersection of the criminal and immigration systems. We welcome the news that President Biden will soon begin exercising his clemency and pardon powers, and that he will do so with a particular focus on racial equity. Immigration, too, is a racial justice issue, and one we hope President Biden will not lose sight of as he exercises these crucial powers.

We write to urge President Biden to consider immigration consequences while exercising his power in two ways: first, by pardoning immigrants with deportable convictions in order to spare them from removal; and second, by ensuring that those who receive clemency also receive an exercise of discretion to ensure that clemency is not rendered meaningless through immigration detention and/or deportation.

See the full Human Rights Watch letter, here.