Several illegal immigrant criminals set to be deported from the United States will start the New Year with a fresh lease on life after liberal governors pardoned their crimes to snub the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pardoned 61 people this week ahead of the New Year, including 18 illegal immigrant criminals awaiting deportation for “low-level” offenses, according to The Hill.

Cuomo’s pardons excused the behavior of 53-year-old Freddy Perez, who was convicted of selling drugs in 1993, as well as Lorena Borjas, a 57-year-old transgender woman activist from Mexico who was convicted of criminal facilitation for human trafficking in 1994.

The governor also forgave 66-year-old Christopher Cavallo, who was convicted of drug sales in 1977, and Mary Snook Downing, a 58-year-old with a record that included possession of stolen property and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Cuomo made it clear in that the pardons for illegal immigrants are aimed squarely at thwarting the Trump administration’s efforts to deport the criminals.

“These New Yorkers have proved their rehabilitation, in some cases for decades, but have been unable to gain legal status or fully reenter society due to the stigma of conviction,” Cuomo said in a prepared statement. “While the federal government continues to target immigrants and threatens to tear families apart with deportation, these actions take a critical step toward a more just, more fair and more compassionate New York.”

That compassion apparently extended to 39-year-old Dominic Dupont, as well. Dupont served 20 years of a 25 year sentence for murder, the New York Daily News reports.

Dupont is the nephew of Michael K. Williams, star of the HBO shows “The Wire” and “Brooklyn Empire,” though Cuomo’s people insist the governor’s decision to commute Dupont’s sentence was centered on his work with youth at Green Haven Correctional Facility, and not his famous uncle.

In California, Gov. Jerry Brown also granted clemency for 132 people ahead of the New Year, including some with criminal convictions who were awaiting deportation.

Those pardoned include Mony Neth, a 43-year-old Cambodian refugee who was convicted of numerous crimes in his youth, including receiving known stolen property; possessing, manufacturing or selling a dangerous weapon; and gang related crimes. Neth received a deportation order in 2002, The Mercury News reports.

Brown also pardoned another Cambodian refugee, Rottanak Kong, who was convicted of felony joyriding in 2003, according to the news site.

Fox News reports both men, who faced deportation in December, came to the U.S. with their families seeking asylum from the Khmer Rouge, Cambodian communists who carried out the so-called Cambodian genocide in the 1970s.

Aside from illegal immigrants, Brown also released multiple people convicted of murder, including some who were serving life sentences, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

A Brown spokesman declined to comment on the decision-making process for the pardons, and told The Mercury News, “The pardon documents speak for themselves.

Legal experts told the media the pardons for illegal immigrants removed the grounds for deportation in some cases, while making it easier for others to plead their case for remaining in the United States.

The pardons, however, are not a guarantee some of the illegal immigrant criminals won’t be deported anyway.

According to The Mercury News:

This year, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, pardoned Liliana Cruz Mendez, a mother of two who lived in the suburbs outside Washington. Cruz Mendez, an El Salvador national who was in the U.S. illegally, was detained by ICE after being stopped for a blown-out headlight in 2014.

ICE deported Cruz Mendez anyway this past summer.