The President …”shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States.”
U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 2
Donald Trump frequently used his presidential pardoning power to reward loyalists convicted of various crimes … and has alluded to pardoning those convicted of participating in the January 6th insurrection and attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He has also stated first-day goals of initiating mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and threatened to direct his Justice Department to prosecute members of the House January 6th Committee as well as judges, prosecutors, and others he believes treated him “unfairly.“
However, President Biden has the Constitutional power to protect many of those Trump plans to target by pardoning undocumented immigrants who have not been charged with or convicted of a felony and others; specifically those who (a) are or were previously granted protected status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, (b) had lived a productive life in the United States for a lengthy period of time, (c) had a wife and/or children who are U.S. citizens, (d) served honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces and (e) judges, prosecutors and investigators legally involved in sanctioned investigations into the former president’s involvement in the January 6th insurgency, withholding of classified documents, and other federal and state investigations.
Such pardons would be humane gestures and protect decent individuals who know no other country but America, should not be separated from their families, or were preforming their constitutional and civic duties.
As presidents can “pardon anyone of any federal crime whether they have been charged, convicted, suspected, or even known to be absolutely innocent of the crime,” their successors cannot override or reverse such actions.
