U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) SWAT officers gear up in this image on Wikipedia dated from 2004.

A longtime Central Valley restaurant manager who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for five months has received a boost to his case from Sacramento.

On Friday, Nov. 7, Gov. Gavin Newsom granted executive clemency to Sam Behpoor for a 2004 residential burglary conviction. He was 18 years old at the time of the crime, for which he was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, according to Newsom.

 

Behpoor was working as a managing at Pismo’s in north Fresno for 10 years until he was detained by ICE on June 23, reported ABC30.  The husband and father is an asylum seeker from Iran.

Behpoor applied for executive clemency from Newsom, and remains in ICE custody in Kern County.

“He has provided evidence that he is living an upright life and has demonstrated his fitness for restoration of civic rights and responsibilities,” Newsom said in his statement.

“This act of clemency of Mr. Behpoor does not minimize or forgive his conduct or the harm it caused. It does recognize the work he has done since to transform himself.”