The Jerry Brown Way of Pardoning

SACRAMENTO — When Borey Ai walked out of prison after serving nearly 20 years for the murder of a woman during a robbery, he was stunned to see immigration agents waiting to take him into custody.

“I had all these aspirations,” Ai said. “I was shocked and devastated, and I felt that I was back in prison.”

Ai, who is now 37, was born in a Thai refugee camp before coming to the United States at age 4. His parents had fled Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime and eventually settled in California’s Central Valley.

Now, he faces deportation to a country that he doesn’t consider home.

Ai is one of about 20 Southeast Asian immigrants who are seeking pardons in the final weeks of Gov. Jerry Brown’s term, hoping for a grant of mercy that will allow them to stay in