In case you missed it last week, New York Gov. David Paterson surprised a lot of us by announcing the creation of a new state-level pardons panel for immigrants facing deportation as a result of criminal convictions.

This is a big deal.

Current immigration law (mostly due to major changes put into the law in the 1990s) requires the detention and deportation of non-citizens—including Green Card holders—who are convicted of a wide array of offenses, including many that are low-level and non-violent (i.e. shoplifting or marijuana possession!) or took place years ago. Immigration judges’ hands are tied from considering the facts of an individual’s case in most circumstances before sentencing deportation.

Gov. Paterson’s new panel could help to build in some basic fairness into the system and keep some New York families and communities together.

Last week, when Sen. Charles Schumer and his Democratic allies in the Senate introduced their blueprint for immigration reform, that big gaping hole you noticed in the blueprint was the missing sections on restoring due process and fairness to the system.

While the governor didn’t exactly call our senior senator out on this point, it’s pretty clear: Gov. Paterson gets it. Sen. Schumer does not.

We’ve been calling for an end to mandatory detention and deportation in immigration reform but until reform passes through Congress with those fixes, states are going to start taking matters into their own hands.

Arizona decided to do it one way, New York is doing it another!

Check the NYCLU’s statement on the Governor’s pardon panel announcement here.