Think a prosecutor\u2019s top job is to lock up criminals? Ha! In New York City, district attorneys think it\u2019s to make sure illegal-immigrant criminals don\u2019t get deported.<\/p>\n
No joke: A new report<\/a> from the House Judiciary Committee warns that Gotham DAs are downgrading charges for illegal-immigrant criminals in order to help them avoid deportation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s utter madness. And a sure way to undermine public safety.<\/p>\n DAs in every borough, the report explains, instruct staff to undertake some form of \u201cimmigration-conscious\u201d prosecutions, reducing charges to \u201cnon-deportable\u201d offenses or effectively scrapping them altogether.<\/p>\n In The Bronx, DA Darcel Clark tells staff to \u201cpursue alternative charges\u201d to avoid making perps eligible to be removed.<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Queens DA Melinda Katz has told her prosecutors \u201cnot to get caught up\u201d in the misdemeanor vs. felony labels, when it comes to illegal-immigrant defendants.<\/p>\n She\u2019s also used an \u201cimmigration specialist\u201d to help frame \u201cdispositions that will prevent unwanted immigration consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Even Staten Island DA Michael McMahon has an Immigrant Affairs and Collateral Consequences Unit.<\/p>\n These rules actually instruct ADAs to hide key details of serious offenses \u2014 like domestic abuse or firearm use \u2014 to shield the thugs.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n In all, it not only keeps foreign criminals in America, it guarantees they\u2019ll walk free to commit new crimes.<\/p>\n More, it privileges them: Perps here illegally face lesser charges than one are who are US citizens, or legal immigrants.<\/p>\n Where is the justice in that?<\/p>\n In fact, this madness has already produced horrible injustices, such as the 2020 murder of Maria Fuertes, 92, by Guyanese migrant Reeaz Khan, whom the city freed despite a federal detainer issued after his earlier busts.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, my grandmother had to be example of why something like this, [these] horrific crimes should never happen,\u201d Fuertes\u2019 granddaughter fumed<\/a> back then.<\/p>\n