Democratic district attorneys across New York City have been instructing prosecutors to downgrade criminal charges against illegal immigrants so they can avoid deportation, according to a report from the House Judiciary Committee.
The report found that prosecutors in all five boroughs were trained to pursue charges considered “non-deportable offenses,” including in cases involving serious crimes. According to the committee, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office trained subordinates to “conceal facts from the record of conviction” and to pursue alternative charges to keep illegal immigrants from facing deportation.
The report says the practice went beyond minor offenses and included cases involving child sex crimes. In 2019, Clark’s office urged assistant district attorneys to pursue “immigration-conscious plea bargaining” and to offer a charge that does not have the child’s age as an element of the crime.
In Queens, District Attorney Melinda Katz similarly instructed prosecutors to “exercise extreme caution” and not get caught up in labels like felonies and misdemeanors when handling cases involving illegal immigrants, according to the report.
The New York Post, which reported on the committee’s findings, said prosecutors in every borough engaged in similar practices. Since 2017, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has trained staff to “avoid disproportionate collateral consequence, such as deportation, while maintaining public safety,” and in some cases prosecutors were told to offer a plea to a lesser offense because of the immigration consequences a more serious charge could bring.
The report also included 2023 training materials telling Bronx prosecutors to make sure convictions for certain offenses do not lead to “unintended and severe consequences such as deportation.” In weapons cases, prosecutors were told to keep the firearm out of the record of conviction and to offer a plea that does not specify a firearm. They were also instructed to keep domestic relationships out of the record of conviction, and in stalking cases to offer a charge without repeated instances or an intent to instill fear.
Over the past 12 months, the NYPD has received nearly 10,000 detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement involving illegal immigrants charged with crimes. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security said New York state authorities have ignored more than 16,000 ICE detainer requests.
