An Open and Urgent Letter to President Donald Trump

The following was written by Father Gordon to President Donald Trump.  You can find his letter here .

Hopefully, justice can also be found for Pornchai's mother who was murdered in Guam.  Pornchai's lawyer have been in contact with the Office of the Attorney General in Guam, but to no avail.  The murder of Pornchai's mother remains a cold case due to the unresponsive manner of Guam's police department and the Guam's Office of Attorney General.  

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December 2, 2020

Dear Mr. President: 

I write on behalf of many Catholic followers of Divine Mercy with an urgent but simple appeal.  Putting the politics of this nation's polarization aside, I join many American Catholics and people of other faiths who have been moved by your consistent agenda to promote both law and order and much needed reform of the criminal justice system.  I wrote for publication about your landmark effort in "President Donald Trump's First Step Act for Prison Reform." 

It is a basic tenet of your First Step Act that when a prison term has been fully served, it should not continue in other forms such as joblessness, job discrimination, and society's ongoing pointed finger of shame.  Your First Step Act is a second chance for many to rise above the past and embrace a future of hope. This will be a part of your legacy for years to come.  

I am writing to request the assistance of your Administration in what should be a simple matter.  As a teenager at age eighteen, Pornchai Moontri committed a crime out of desperation.  He has served every day of his sentence and was released at age forty-seven on September 11, 2020 to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation to his native Thailand.  

Mr. President, it is important to note that neither Mr. Moontri nor his many advocates and friends who have become his family in America are seeking commutation of his removal order.  However, that could also be a just and merciful outcome.  In lieu of that, what he and we seek is his rapid repatriation to his native Thailand, a nation from which, as you read below, he was removed at age eleven as a victim of human trafficking.  Since having fully served his prison sentence, Mr. Moontri has experienced an unjust and merciless three-month extension of that sentence with no end in sight.  

Taxpayers already have spent far more for Mr. Moontri's detention than would have been spent for his removal.  We, his advocates, are more than willing to purchase his airfare to Thailand if permitted.  We have built a future for him there with good people who anxiously await his return.  This could be remedied easily by your office with a simple phone call. 

There is much more to this story which should become part of your discernment on the right course of action.  Pornchai Moontri was a child victim of human trafficking.  He was abandoned by his mother at age two in Thailand.  She fell under the influence and control of an American, Richard Alan Bailey, who brought her to the U.S. After a passage of nine years, Bailey sent her to retrieve Pornchai at age eleven and bring him to this country.  

Pornchai was imprisoned by Bailey who repeatedly raped and beat him.  At age thirteen he escaped but was returned by local police who did not understand his Thai protests.  At age fourteen he escaped again and became a homeless adolescent living on the streets of a foreign country.  At age eighteen, intoxicated and broken, he took a man's life during a struggle.  

While awaiting trial at age eighteen in 1992, Pornchai was visited by his mother who told him that Richard Bailey would harm her if Pornchai divulged any of what had happened to him.  In fear for his mother's life, Pornchai thus remained silent throughout his trial, refusing to participate in his own defense.  In 2000, while attempting to leave Richard Bailey, Pornchai's mother was murdered on the U.S. Territorial Island of Guam while in Bailey's company.  She was beaten to death.  This matter remains an unsolved "cold case" homicide despite new evidence pointing to an obvious suspect who has never answered for this crime.  

In 2018, after becoming fully aware of this story, from articles I had written and published, Pornchai's advocates brought Richard Bailey to justice.  On September 12, 2018 Bailey was convicted in Penobscot (Maine) Superior Court on forty felony counts of child sexual abuse against Pornchai Moontri.  

A simple Google search of "Pornchai Moontri" will reveal much documentation of the above.  It will also reveal the talented, gifted, intelligent man that Pornchai has become.  Pornchai became a devout Catholic convert and a celebrated member of the Divine Mercy movement in the Catholic Church.  He has been the subject of numerous published articles and a book, Love, Lost, Found by Marian Press editor and author, Felix Carroll.  

As I mentioned above, it would be both justice and mercy if Porchai's deportation order could be commuted, but he would nonetheless leave the United States for Thailand of his own accord.  A life and future have been for him there as a valued member of Divine Mercy Thailand.  Regardless of what you decide in this matter, Mr. President, we implore you to help us get him out of ICE custody to commence rapid repatriation to his native land.  Pornchai has suffered more than enough for one lifetime.  

Respectfully Yours, 

Father Gordon J. MacRae

BeyondTheseStoneWalls.com