This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump attacked the California governor, Jerry Brown, on Saturday for his pardon of five ex-convicts facing deportation, including two who fled the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia with their families four decades ago.

In a tweet, Trump referred to Brown as “Moonbeam”, a nickname a newspaper columnist coined for him in the 1970s. Trump then listed the ex-convicts’ crimes before they were pardoned on Friday. They include misdemeanor domestic violence, drug possession, and kidnapping and robbery.

Trump, who last August pardoned Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio over the unconstitutional racial profiling of Latinos, wrote: “Is this really what the great people of California want?”

According to the White House pool report, Trump sent his tweet – and two continuing his attack on Amazon.com – from the presidential motorcade on the way to one of his golf courses in Florida.

A spokesman for Brown responded to a request for comment with more information about the five men but did not directly address Trump’s criticism.

In a news release about the pardons on Friday, the governor’s office said: “Those granted pardons all completed their sentences years ago and the majority were convicted of drug-related or other non-violent crimes.”

“Pardons are not granted unless they are earned,” the governor’s office added.

Brown’s pardons were the third time the Democrat has intervened on behalf of immigrants deported or facing deportation over convictions. He has accused the Trump administration of “basically going to war” with California over immigration policy.

Brown’s pardons do not automatically stop deportation proceedings, but they eliminate the convictions on which authorities based their deportation.

Trump’s pardon spared Arpaio from a possible jail sentence. The 85-year-old lawman announced a run for Senate in January.

Those pardoned on Friday by Brown included Sokha Chhan and Phann Pheach, who face deportation to Cambodia, a country ruled in the 1970s by the genocidal Khmer Rouge.

Chhan was convicted of two counts of misdemeanor domestic violence in 2002 and served about a year in jail. Pheach was convicted of possessing drugs and obstructing a police officer in 2005 and served six months. His wife has said he is in federal custody.

Also pardoned was Daniel Maher, who served five years stemming from an armed robbery of a San Jose auto parts store in 1994. Convicted of kidnapping, robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm, he is facing deportation to China, where he has never lived. He is from Macau, which became part of China after his family moved to California when he was three.

Also pardoned while facing deportation were Daniel Mena and Francisco Acevedo Alaniz. Mena served three years of probation after being convicted of possessing illegal drugs in 2003. Alaniz served five months for a 1997 car theft.

The governor is a former Jesuit seminarian and traditionally issues pardons close to Christian holidays. Easter falls on Sunday. California’s longest-serving governor has now issued 1,519 pardons, 404 in his first two terms, from 1975 to 1983.