The time has come to bring him home.

3 years ago, National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden shocked American citizens by exposing them to the daunting breaches of our privacy being committed by the government. Since then he has been living in exile in Russia.

In 2013, Snowden leaked thousands of confidential NSA documents regarding national and international surveillance agendas to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Ewan MacAskill, and Laura Poitras (all of whom were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their work).

Many people argue that what he did was treason and believe what he did compromised national security. This is completely false. What he has done has opened many American’s eyes to the controversial acts by our national government. What Snowden did was a patriotic act and helped our nation.

So what exactly did Snowden expose? Verizon Wireless has been working with the NSA to hand over all cell phone data from Verizon customers including phone calls and text messages. The NSA has been spying on famous world leaders like former South African President Nelson Mandela, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, former President of Iran Ali Khamenei, and others. PRISM, an NSA surveillance program, has had the power to request server data from Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, among others, and these companies are legally compelled to comply.

Snowden revealed the NSA has a tool called XKeyscore that allows them to see almost everything any user does online. On top of all of this, the NSA intercepts all phone calls in both the Bahamas and Afghanistan. However, that’s not all. Snowden revealed over a thousand more pieces of information, according to Business Insider.

The other documents included the fact that the NSA had been surveilling multiple Latin America countries like Venezuela, Peru, Panama, and more. They’ve also been scooping up personal information through various smartphone apps, including the commonly known Angry Birds.

In all, he released over 200 thousand documents, and the NSA claims he still has access to over one million. By leaking all of this information, Snowden showed the country and the world that nothing they do is really private. Just about everything that you do online is being tracked. This is why Snowden needs to be pardoned. According to the Washington Post, some of what the government has been doing breaks the law, but anything that is actually legal such as what Snowden did is ironically considered “outrageous and unacceptable.”

What the NSA has been doing should be known by everyone. People have the right to privacy, but at the very least, they should have the right to know their privacy is being invaded.

In his tape exposing himself as the whistleblower, Snowden said, “This is something that’s not our place to decide, the public needs to decide whether or not these policies are right or wrong.”

According to The Guardian, Snowden said that he’s just an ordinary guy that wants to make the public aware of acts being made by our government. He said multiple times that his intention wasn’t to go against the government or the country in anyway. He did this to show the American people the illegal and wrong activities of the NSA.

Due to this, a website titled PardonSnowden.org has begun its campaign to convince President Barack Obama to grant Snowden amnesty. The campaign has started an official petition on the White House website for the cause. Its goal of 100 thousand signatures has been surpassed by over 67 thousand.

The petition reads that “Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs.”

Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, is a notable supporter of this campaign. Stein, according to an article Anti-Media, went as far to say if she wins the election, she will not only pardon Snowden, but also add him to her cabinet.

According to TIME Magazine, Lisa Monaco, the President’s advisor to homeland security, says that if Snowden believes what he did was right, then he should come back to the U.S. and face the consequences.

What Snowden did was no doubt illegal, but his monumental leaks benefited the people of this country. Edward Snowden deserves to be recognized as a patriot; as a person that helped the American people wake up to the shameful acts being committed by the government.