District attorneys generally tailor their prosecutions to the crime committed. But when prosecutors routinely break that rule, disregard the facts of a case, or pursue disproportionate charges, they undermine the justice system and foster corruption.
Many leftist district attorneys are disregarding the principle that charges should reflect the severity of the crime. Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee have released a report titled “New York City: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies.” It presents evidence that DAs in New York City have been consistently downgrading charges against illegal immigrants so that they can remain inside American borders.
Several of these DAs and state Attorney General Letitia James held a gun control press conference on Thursday. After they announced New York City had seized a record number of illegal guns, a reporter then asked about the Judiciary Committee report: “Did any of you order prosecutors to downgrade gun charges to keep illegal immigrants in the U.S.?” Interestingly, they fell silent, then brushed off the reporter and moved on with the event. An explanation might have cooled the flames, but their refusal to answer looks like an admission of guilt. Stone-faced silence often speaks volumes, after all.
The report names several New York prosecutors and describes how they account for defendants’ immigration status when considering plea deals. One such attorney even admits that “a broad range of criminal convictions may trigger severe immigration consequences” for criminal aliens, and the Immigration Specialist “helps Assistant District Attorneys navigate through plea options and assist in framing dispositions that will prevent unwanted immigration consequences.” In other words, the office employs someone specifically tasked with helping prosecutors minimize the immigration consequences for criminal defendants, allowing illegals to avoid deportation.
New York City has a DA for each borough, and it seems all five are involved.
These allegations raise a broader question about sanctuary policies. Dozens of cities, counties, and states consider themselves sanctuary areas. All of these places actively defy the federal government and prevent federal immigration enforcement from doing its job. Many of ICE’s PR nightmares happened in sanctuary cities, since local law enforcement refused to help them.
These sanctuary areas have attracted law-breaking migrants and therefore became breeding grounds for crime. America’s most crime-ridden cities are often sanctuary territory, and it shouldn’t be a surprise as to why. By allowing immigrants to commit one crime without consequence, authorities are incentivizing them to commit even more crimes. Sanctuary cities have become an open invitation to destroy the people and places that made America great.
Add that with the judicial system’s lack of bite in New York City and likely elsewhere, and then you have the migrant’s utopia, at the expense of everyone else’s money and quality of life — and, for some, their lives.
Many in the GOP have noted that preventable crime should always be prevented, and the crimes that illegal immigrants commit in America are 100% preventable. The Trump administration closed the border, leaving these sanctuary cities as the biggest obstacle to the prevention of migrant crime. Sanctuary should belong only to the American people and their invited guests, no more.
