NYC DAs order prosecutors to downgrade criminal charges for illegal aliens to shield them from deportations—including for child sex crimes

The report found that prosecutors in all five boroughs have been trained to pursue charges considered “non-deportable offenses,” including in cases that involve serious crimes. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office has trained subordinates to “conceal facts from the record of conviction” and “pursue alternative charges” to keep illegal immigrants in the US from facing deportation.

This practice extends beyond minor offenses and has included cases involving child sex crimes. In 2019, Clark’s office urged assistant district attorneys to pursue “immigration-conscious plea bargaining” to “[o]ffer something 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 the label of [f]elonies, [m]isdemeanors” for illegal immigrants.

According to a report by the New York Post, which reported on the committee’s findings, prosecutors in every New York City borough have 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.” Prosecutors in some cases have been instructed to offer “a plea for a lesser offense in light of the disproportionate immigration consequences a higher level offense may result in.”

The House Judiciary Committee’s report also included training materials from 2023 instructing Bronx prosecutors to “strive to ensure that a conviction for certain offenses does not lead to unintended and severe consequences such as deportation that can tear families apart and destabilize communities.” Prosecutors were even told that in cases involving weapons, to “[k]eep the firearm out of the record of conviction” and “[o]ffer something that does not specify a firearm” during plea bargaining.

Prosecutors were further instructed to “[k]eep the domestic relationship 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 New York City Police Department has received nearly 10,000 detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement involving illegal immigrants charged with crimes. The Department of Homeland Security revealed earlier this month that New York state authorities have ignored more than 16,000 ICE detainer requests.